India : Forty Years Of Progress And Reform.

FORTY

DIA

YEARS OF PROGRESS
AND REFORM

BEING

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
BEHRAMJI M. MALABARI

BY

R. P.]K ARK ARIA

EDITOR OF

CARLYLE’S UNPUBLISHED LECTURES ON EUROPEAN LITERATURE

AND CULTURE

Bonbon

HENRY FROWDE

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
AMEN CORNER, E.C.

1896

PREFACE

In the following pages an attempt has been made to
present to the reader a slight sketch of an Indian
career which deserves to be known more widely.
Mr. Malabari is already well . known, both in this
country and in Europe, by his own literary works as
well as, recently, by the excellent life of him, written
by his friend and colleague, Mr. Dayaram Gidumal,
C. S . ; but above all, by his efforts in the cause of
Social Reform. These efforts give him a unique place
in contemporary history. The single-minded, straight-
forward honesty of purpose, the boldness and perse-
verance shown in the good cause, and, more than all,
the spirit of self-sacrifice which pervades his crusade
against evils that stand in the way of national
progress, stamp him as an exemplary character. His
intellectual endowments are great, but they are shared
by others among his more prominent countrymen.
What raises him above most of his contemporaries is \
that he combines this intellectual eminence with
moral greatness, and subordinates it to a high moral
purpose. This is what renders him ‘ the best among
the men whom India is producing in the course of her
new development ’ under British rule. He is the type

VI

Preface.

of true culture, and he has striven hard to leave the
world the better for his having entered it. He has
had fixed ideals in life, which he has pursued steadily
through good report and ill report, allowing

‘ Neither evil tongues,

Rash judgements, nor the sneers of selfish men, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life 1 ,’

to prevail over him and make him swerve from the
path of Duty, which, in his case, is the path of active
benevolence. The life of such a man will be well
worth recounting at length, when it has run its full
course. Long may that day be in coming! Mean-
while, I have endeavoured to give this outline sketch,
based on known facts, with such reflections as
suggested themselves while writing about one whom I
am proud to call my countryman and friend, whom
I had learnt to admire long before I came to know
him personally, and personal contact with whom has
not only confirmed and increased my admiration for
his character and genius, but has made me, I believe,
a wiser and a better man. May these slight pages
succeed in introducing readers to a great personality,
make Indians appreciate better what a force for good
they possess in him, and Englishmen rejoice how
fruitful the efforts of their race for the mental and
moral improvement of this God-given dependency
must prove when they produce men like Mr.
Malabari.

R. P. KARKARIA.

Matheran (near Bombay),

May 9, 1894.

1 Wordsworth, Lines on Tintern Abbey.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Introduction — The Idea of self-sacrifice, in the East and in
the West — England's Work in India — The System of Edu-
cation, Western as opposed to Oriental . . . . i

CHAPTER II.

Early life — his Mother's Influence — Her Death and its effects —
Struggles and Vicissitudes — School Days — The Rev. Mr.

Dixon — Literary Training 20

CHAPTER III.

Early literary efforts — Vernacular Literature— The Rev. Dr.
Wilson — The Parsis, their position and influence — Special
efforts for their conversion to Christianity — Niti- Vinod. Hindu
Gujarati and Parsi Gujarati . . . , . .41

CHAPTER IV.

Marriage — Female Education among Parsis and other classes —
Indian Muse in English Garb — Wilson's influence — A real
missionary — Influence of Christianity on modem Indian
thought — Zoroastrianism — Wilson Vzrah . .

60

Vlll

Contents.

CHAPTER V.

Journalism in India — The Indian Spectator — New Political
Activity, unrest and dissatisfaction — Criticism of Government.

CHAPTER VI.

Book on Gujarat, a true Picture of life in Town and Village

Translations of Max Muller’s Hibbert Lectures dealing with
the Religions of India ....

CHAPTER VII.

Social Reform — Malabari’s life-work — The Position of Indian
Women — The Marriage Question — The Age of Consent Act .

CHAPTER VIII.

Visit to England — The Indian Eye on English Life— The Indian
Problem — Latest Gujarati poem — Conclusion

Supplement. Extracts from Let*- - - relating to Malabari .

-N

PAGE

83

103

X 1 4

I 3 I

*43

Index .

• 149

INDIA:

FORTY YEARS OF PROGRESS AND REFORM.

CHAPTER I.

EnrflnSw 011 ^ 11 ! 6 !r 6a ° f SeIf ' Sacrifice in the East and in the West-
5 Oriental “ he SyStem ° f Education > Western as opposed

It is often said that the East has been deficient in
the practice of self-sacrifice, and that instances of lives
of pure philanthropy, devoted to doing good to one’s
fellows, without thought of self, are rare in the annals
of Oriental biography. In V -st books of exemplary
lography, it is the lives of European worthies that
are taken up to point the moral of heroic self-abneo-a-
tion and the devotion of man to his kind. To a certain
extent this may be owing to the general ignorance ,
a out the East and its affairs and history prevailino-
among Europeans. Even when these are inclined to
enlighten themselves on what they have now come
slowly to recognize as the original home of civilization
and. the source of light, when they are beginning to
realize the truth of the phrase ex Oriente lux, they*find
the means at hand rather scanty and unsatisfactory.

B

2

India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

History, one of the most important branches of know-
ledge, has been very poorly treated by the Easterns.

By the Hindus of ancient and mediaeval India it was

/

almost entirely neglected, and with the exception of
two books the whole of Sanskrit literature is barren in
works relating explicitly to facts and events in the life
of the country. The Mahomedans paid a little more
attention to history, and their literature contains many
works on the subject. But, unfortunately, they held
peculiar views about the dignity of history, con-
cerning themselves mostly with kings and kingdoms,
recording worldly greatness, but evincing little interest
in the ordinary people and their benefactors. Hence
their works are full of the details of battles and sieves

o *

and contain minute particulars about the lives of kings
and conquerors. Their professed biographies too,
which are few in number, are devoted to men who
have occupied thrones and led conquering hosts. But
it is not among such that we expect self-denial and
love of others. On the contrary, from their point of
view they often give us a very low and false idea of
their times. What a false and mutilated idea should
we have of England in the last century if we had the
record of no other lives than those of Marlborouo-h
and the first two Georges, and nothing to remind us
of the career of Wesley and Howard! Such an idea
of the East is carried away by those who read the
history of Tamarlane and Jenghis Khan, of Mahmud
of Ghazni and Aurangzib of Delhi. The redeeming
features presented by the silent lives of good men
working for the benefit of their fellows, are generally

3

absent in Mahomedan literature, and are apt to be
inferred as having not existed at all.

But in truth, the East has been the home of the

d °. c ir. me °£ self-sacrifice siiTce the "earliest times.' It

has been the birthplace of all the great religions which
are founded on the subordination or the effacement
of self with regard to one’s Maker and his kind.
Zoroastrianism, probably the oldest of religions, has
for its cardinal doctrine that of charity and doing good
to mankind without thought of self. The system of
Buddha, Which has profoundly and permanent^ £
fected the greater half of the Eastern world, is based
on self-effacement and tender consideration, not only
for the human race, but the entire living creation.
The life of the noble enthusiast himself is one of the
most striking instances of careers devoted with an
unswerving singleness of purpose to benefit the world.
Hinduism, too, though in its later Brahmanic develop-
ment it has become a selfish and exclusive cult hedeed
round by caste, is, in its origin and essence, ant-
spintmg faith. Manus beautiful idea of original debt
implying that every man is born a debtor, and must
discharge his original debt by doing good deeds for
his fellows, is like the Christian doctrine of original
sm, and perhaps more inspiring. And the Christian
religion, the noblest, in this respect, of all, having for

its central mystery the sacrifice of the sernnrl °

,1 n ,, , t t * 1 tne secon d person

oi the Godhead Himself for th** • i

, . iiimseu, ior tne redemption and final

appmess of fallen man, had its birth in the East, in

that narrow stop tn the corner which unites Europe

h As ' a - S y^ spiritual union of the two

4 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

great continents to be effected through its agency.
Jesus Himself, the highest type of self-sacrifice, was
born an Asiatic; and His life, though lived for the
whole world, was spent on Asiatic soil amid Oriental
surroundings. Of Islam, the latest of the world
religions, the fundamental idea is resignation of one’s
will and self-surrender, though that ideal has been
clouded by many contradictory practices in the course
of its development. And it is not merely in the
lives of the founders of these world-religions that
we find the doctrine of self-sacrifice and its practice.
All of them have produced heroic characters, who
have lived and died solely for their fellow-beings.
But the saying, that the world does not know its
t greatest men, is true at least of the East, which has
) kept a very meagre record of the lives and deeds

of its really great men.

\

ylt may however be admitted, that the ideal pur-
sued by the East in this matter of self-sacrifice has
been chiefly a subjective one. With its traditional
propensity to metaphysics and contemplation, it has
been more or less content with practising self-sacrifice
in a passive way, giving itself up to austerity and self-
communion, and detaching itself from the world.
Thus it has been the chosen cradle and home of
Rishis and Fakirs, who have tried to efface self by
solitary meditation on spiritual matters. Hence it has
also been the birthplace of monasticism, Buddhist and
Christian, in which the soul, full too much of self,
sought a refuge in surrendering itself passively to
a higher ideal. The West has been, on the contrary,

Self-sacrifice in the East and in the West.

5

practical and active in the matter. Its ideal has been

action and movement, while that of the East has been

quiet and rest. It has received the doctrine of self-

sacrifice from the East, and has modified it according'

to its bent, and made it practical and active. Hence

in modern times in Europe we see men sacrificing

themselves, not by detachment and seclusion from the

world, but by leading active lives of usefulness in and

for the world. The passive Eastern ideal, which was

also preferred by Aristotle and mediaeval Europe, has

to a great extent given way to the progress of positive

science, and has, in modern Europe, become active for

bettering mans estate. Instead of monks leading

a cloistered life away from the din of the world, we

now have monks of a higher order, pursuing an equally

noble ideal in the very thick of life, trying to alleviate

human misery, and instead of retiring from the field of

action, standing firmly by the side of their weaker

fellows and helping them to fight the battle of life more

bravely. The Catholic Church, the great stronghold

of monasticism in the Middle Ages, has seen and felt

this momentous change of ideal that has come upon

modern Europe, and has wisely adapted itself to the

change. The institution of the historic order of Jesus,

whose members lead an active life of self-sacrifice in

the very midst of the world, living thus in full touch

with it, is no slight proof of the wisdom and elasticity
of the Church of Rome.

The West, having taken this ideal from the East,
and having modified it according to its own genius,
has tried to return it to the East in this state. The

6 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

highest ideal of active philanthropy has been attempted
by the Teutonic nations, whose very genius lies in
action and motion. And it has been the great good
fortune of the East to come next in contact with one
of the two great branches of the sturdy, active Teutonic
races which proved the salvation of Europe in freeing
it from the effete and moribund rule of the degenerate
Roman empire. This branch, the British, has been
destined by a singular fate to affect profoundly one
of the most important countries of the East, India,
and its ideals. The English have become, in this land,
the masters of one of the greatest Oriental empires
that ever flourished in ancient or modern times. And
they have always tried to use this mastery for the
benefit of the subject races. Since the early dawn of
their rule, when it was hardly yet established in the
country, efforts have been made to raise the people to
a higher level by conferring upon them the blessings
of Western civilization and culture. The generation
that elapsed after Plassey was spent mainly in the
struggle for establishing themselves. But when, after
conquest and diplomacy, more leisure was left for
peaceful pursuits, the English were not slow in utilizing
their opportunities for doing good. The results, in
the direction of material advance, have been glorious
indeed. To him who asks for a monument of the
British rule in India, an appropriate answer may be
made in the celebrated phrase, Circumspice ! He has
only to look round about him in the land to find
permanen t m emorials of British beneficence. Her
highways and railroads and canals; her large and

England’s Work in India. 7

flourishing cities, the centres of her manufactures and
trade, developed to proportions hitherto unknown ; her
gigantic public works, — all these are living monuments
of Britain’s philanthropic rule of a century, beside
which nearly everything done in this line by former
dynasties during much longer periods sinks into
insignificance.

But greater even than this triumph of material pro-
gress is that of mental and moral advance. England
has had the rare satisfaction of awakening the torpid
Hindu intellect from the sleep into which it had been
thrown by the fierce foreign rule of the Mahomedans
during seven centuries, the real Middle Ages of Indian
history. In its far-reaching importance this new period
of the Eclaircissement in modern India may be com- .
pared to the awakening of the European mind from
the inactivity of the Middle Ages at the time of the
Renaissance. As the mind of Western Europe, dazzled
by the new stores of Greek learning in the fifteenth
century revealed to its admiring gaze by Byzantine
scholars, refused to proceed any longer on the old
beaten track of mediaeval knowledge, and eagerly
followed the new light, striking out new paths of
science and philosophy; so the Indian intellect, pro-
foundly moved in many ways, in our century, by the
revelation to it of European culture through the
English language and literature, is striving after fresh
conquests. The .revolution which the young Indian
mind is experiencing has stirred it powerfully, and its
influence is being felt in many departments of life.
Slowly but surely the whole fabric of Indian society is

8 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

changing under this salutary foreign influence brought
to bear upon it by the alien rulers.

Two agencies were, from the first, employed by
these rulers to achieve their object of amelioratino-
the condition of the millions placed under their care
by an all-wise Providence. One was that of active
missionary effort by which the early enthusiasts among
the pioneers of British progress sought to reclaim the
Indians from their old faith. The deep hold which
this faith had upon the people, however absurd it may
have appeared to the followers and inheritors of
a nobler . religion, was not realized by the first genera-
tion of English philanthropists. The efforts at direct
conversion to Christianity were vigorously put forth,
till it became necessary to acknowledge with bitterness
that as direct efforts they had proved on the whole
futile. It was found that direct and open proselytism
frightened the people and made them averse to
European learning altogether, when coupled with the
European faith. It was feared that this method would
defeat the object of improving the condition of the
people, even intellectually and materially, and give
rise to a reaction in favour not only of the old faith,
but also of the old ways of thinking and living which
were beginning to be visibly affected by the Western
modes. The tenacity and vitality of the indigenous
religions had to be acknowledged and reckoned with.
Even as early as the close of the last century it was
frankly confessed by one of the best missionaries, who
knew the people intimately, and had lived for a long
time as one of themselves, namely, Dubois, that Chris-

f

England’s Work in India.

9

tianity was not destined to make headway amongst
the Indian nations. It could best succeed but in-
■ directly, as we shall have occasion to remark later,
by modifying the indigenous creeds. But it did not
seem likely ever to win over the subtle Hindu mind
to itself, so as to make that mind accept all its dogmas
and mysteries implicitly. Even able officers of the
Government were, in the earlier days, carried away
by their zeal for the spread of the Gospel, impervious
to the force of this observation. Many of them urged
the East India Company to exert its influence for the
spread of its own faith among the people. One of
the ablest men among them, who had really the good
of the people at heart, a Director of the Company,
thought it wise to write as follows, after mature de-
liberation and a long and close study of the people.
In the Preface to his now very rare Observations on
the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great
Britain, addressed in 1797 to his fellow Directors,
Charles Grant says, ‘ In earlier periods the Company
manifested a laudable zeal for extending, as far as its
means then went, the knowledge of the Gospel to the
pagan tribes among whom its factories were placed.

It has since prospered to become great in a way to
which the commercial history of the world affords no
parallel, and for this it is indebted to the fostering and
protecting care of Divine Providence. It owes, there-
fore, warmest gratitude for the past, and it equally
needs the support of the same beneficent Power in
time to come for the “chances and changes” to which
human affairs are always liable, and specially the

io India: Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

emphatic lessons of vicissitude which the present day
has supplied may assure us that neither elevation nor
safety can be maintained by any of the nations or
rulers of the earth, but through Him who governs
the whole. The duty, therefore, of the Company, as
part of the Christian community, its peculiar super-
added obligations, its enlarged means, and its con-
tinual dependence on the Divine favour, all call
upon it to honour God by diffusing the knowledge

of that revelation which He has vouchsafed to
mankind V

But views like these rapidly give way to increased
experience and maturer consideration. Proselytizing
zeal and effort were given up by the Government as
an agency for improving the moral and mental con-
dition of the people. Secular education was preferred
for the purpose. The mind of the people Was sought
to be enlightened by literary and scientific information.
It was hoped that the old creeds would languish of
themselves when the light of reason and knowledge
was thrown upon them. The odium of direct attack
would thus be averted, and the citadel of superstition
would fall by what could be likened to the sapping
and mining process.

But here sprang up an important difference among
men entrusted with the task of organizing secular
education, which threatened seriously to cripple the
power of this ^agency for raising the masses. Mount-
stuart Elphinstone, in his famous minute on education,
written in 1824, expressed his confident conviction,

1 Appendix, G. Smith, Conversion of India, 1893, p. 99.

Th e System of Education. n

while resisting direct missionary effort, that ‘ the
conversion of the natives must infallibly result from
the diffusion of knowledge among them ’ ( Official
Writings, ed. Forrest, page 107). /Some among these,
being themselves well versed in the Eastern lore,
impelled by the desire of fostering indigenous litera-
ture and learning, were strongly for imparting
knowledge to the Indians in their own classics and
vernaculars, and for confining them to their own
literatures. These men, who were led by the dis-
tinguished Sanskritist, Prof. H. H. Wilson, were very
influential, and were once very near carrying their
point. Had they succeeded, the result would have
been little short of a disaster, throwing back all
progress. The Eastern mind would have been thrown
upon itself, doomed to tread the narrow range of its
indigenous ancient productions. These have un-
doubtedly their own great merits, and hold a high
rank in universal literature. But they must be
admitted by even their warmest admirers to be
insufficient for modern times and purposes. An
exclusive study of these alone would tend to confirm
the bent of the Indian intellect in one direction alone,
and prevent its acquiring that breadth of view and
liberality which is an essential requisite of true culture.
When such a rich body of literature existed in the
English language, including the masterpieces of the
master minds of all ages and all countries of Europe,
it would have argued the height of unwisdom deli-
berately to ignore this language and its literature,
with all its variety and freshness, in the face of

12 India : Foviy Yeans of Pnogness and Refonvn.

a splendid opportunity of utilizing them for the rarest
of purposes in the gift of one nation, that of raising
another, with an earlier civilization, but now sunk in
the scale of humanity. Luckily, a man was on the
spot, who, himself thoroughly imbued with the modern
spirit, stood up for the spread of modern culture and
learning. Macaulay threw the whole weight of his
influence and all his great powers of persuasion on the
side of imparting an English and European education
to the natives of India, and he won the battle. He
wrote, in his most persuasive manner, a minute which
is in reality an essay, superior in many respects to his
professed popular essays, and gained over the
Governor-General, Lord Bentinck.

More than sixty years have elapsed since this
momentous decision, and during these a revolution
has been working in the country, which is really mar-
vellous to witness, and unparalleled in the history
of conquests. When Rome, by her material strength,
had subdued Greece, the mother of arts and eloquence,
she herself fell an easy victim to the mental strength
of her captive. Graecia capta femirn victorem cepit.
Grecian learning and literature were adopted by
Rome. Her great writers imitated the Greeks, and
their works are often but an echo of Hellenic
literature. But England may be said to have
achieved a double triumph over India, of which she
has captured both mind and matter. Far from being \
Asiaticized and Hinduized' by this conquest, she has
succeeded in Europeanizing and Anglicizing the
Indian mind. The seed of Western culture has so

The System of Education.

13

far fallen on fertile soil, and is already producing
a rich harvest.

Dr. Arnold, in one of his Lectures on Modern
History, after the striking observation that the
changes which have been wrought in the world have
arisen out of the reception of the old elements of
progress by new races, despaired of any further
advance owing to the absence, in his eyes, of any new
race capable of receiving such old elements. ‘ Now,
looking anxiously round the world for any new races
which may receive the seed (so to speak) of our
present history into a kindly yet vigorous soil, and
may reproduce it, the same, and yet new, for a future
period, we know not where such are to be found.
Some appear exhausted, others incapable, and yet the
surface of the whole globe is thrown open to us.’
Little did Arnold dream while uttering these gloomy
words in 1842, that at that very time the seed was
being sown on fertile soil in India by his countrymen
rightly refusing to believe that the Indians were either
exhausted or incapable 1 . /Macaulay and Bentinck
were justified in their expectation of the enormous
benefits to accrue to the Indian races from English
education. During the last two generations India
has gone through a new and a unique development,
fraught with momentous consequences to itself and to
the British Empire. Under Western influences the
former traditional moorings are already being
gradually left behind, and the educated classes are
drifting towards another goal. The new system of

1 Cp. Hay Cameron, Duties of Britain to India , p. 127.

i4 India: Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

education has produced a race of capable and earnest
natives of the soil, imbued with the Western spirit and
possessed by the zeal to pursue higher ideals in life,
more in harmony with the times. It is of one of the
ablest and most brilliant men of this new class, which
owes its existence to the noble motive and fostering
care of the British rule, that this sketch purposes to
treat. That man, the best, as Sir J ohn Scott, who
knew him well while in Bombay, describes him, whom
India in the course of her new development has
produced, is Behramji Malabari, poet, publicist, author,
but above everything else, philanthropist and social

Or rather, it may be said that he is poet,
publicist and other things, solely and almost exclusively

for the purpose of being a philanthropist and social
reformer.

Most of these English educated Indians have
thought it wise to choose the sphere of politics for
the exercise of their newly-acquired strength. Of all
the various kinds of activity which they have seen
exercised by public men in the West, and especially in
England, they have been dazzled by the most brilliant
as exhibited in the field of politics. Nurtured on
the liberal sentiments and lofty notions which are the
distinguishing features of English literature, they have
naturally been impelled, in the first instance, to apply
these to their own country, though a closer knowledge
of its past history and present condition would have
advised them better. Their activities have been
engrossed by a burning desire for the reform of the
State, and to this object they ar,e sacrificing all others.

i5

The System of Education.

This tendency was observed in the newly-educated
natives from the very beginning, and there were many
who were apprehensive of grave political danger from
such a system of education. Lord Ellenborough, for
instance, in his evidence before the Committee of the
House of Commons, openly and emphatically declared
his opinion that if endeavours were made to impart
European education and ideas to the natives, the
English must not expect to retain their hold on India.
But other high-minded Englishmen were not wanting
to come forward and defend the generous course
which it had been decided to pursue, of enabling the
Indians to develop to the utmost the good qualities
with which Providence had endowed them from the
earliest times, and of raising them by the lever of
a liberal European education from the depths into
which they had fallen in the course of prolonged
subjugation, especially under Mahomedan rule. Even
from a selfish point of view it was pointed out that
England should rejoice at this education of the natives.

‘ The class that we are creating,’ wrote Mr. Hay
Cameron, one of the most enlightened champions of
native progress in these early days, ‘ as we approach
towards this great object, the class imbued with
European letters, will be for many generations wholly
dependent upon us, much more so than any of the
separate and antagonistic classes which we found
already existing ; and they will exceed all these other
classes in their enlightened perception of their true
position, still more than in the degree of dependence
which characterizes it.. They know that, if we were

16 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform .

voluntarily to retire from India, they would instantly
be subjugated by fierce and unlettered warriors 1 .
Two generations have now gone by, and the lettered
class, contemplated here, has grown up with the
growth and strengthened with the strength of the
British Empire in India, as its proudest and most
lasting trophy. Whatever may be thought of the
exclusive or one-sided activity of certain among our
native politicians of the present day, it cannot be
denied that they are a powerful factor in their way,
who only require to be properly treated and utilized
by the rulers, to do all that was expected from them,
and be a source of strength, rather than* of weakness,
to the Government that has made their existence

possible.

Of all the objections that are raised against this
new class of politicians, who restrict their energies to
a close watching of the acts of the British Government
and subjecting these to minute, if not sometimes
captiotts criticism, the strongest, because most reason-
able, seems to be that they are not utilizing their
newly-acquired strength in the direction which requires
it most, in trying to remove those crying evils which
infest the social side of the body politic, and which
stand so much in the way of realizing their new political
ideals. The present rdgime may be bad though it
has by no means been proved that it is not immeasur
ably superior to the best under which India has hitherto
lived. Its acts now and then deserve censure. But
the present social condition of the people, characterized,

1 Duties of Britain to India , 1853? P* 5 **

The System of Education . xi

as it is, by senseless and inhuman customs, undermining
their vitality and debasing their ideals, is admittedly
worse. If there be any one task which should absorb
the energy of the educated class, and in which they
should seek for help from every available quarter, it is
this of moral and social reform. The State is based
on the family, and before trying to reform the former,
attempts must be made to improve the latter. ‘ The
inner life of the people and their homes must be made
healthy, morally and physically, before any solid im-
provement of the outer life is attempted.’ A people
with their homes debased, their women ignorant and
superstitious, a people trammelled with all the old-
world prejudices and subject to the most cruelly
one-sided customs and usages, can never hope to enjoy
or exercise high political privileges. All endeavours
in this direction alone, without fulfilling the preliminary
conditions of moral and social reform, must end in
disappointment if not in disaster.

This great need of social reform, though ignored
apparently by the body of educated natives, has yet
been felt by a few of the most enlightened among
them. They know the evil customs that have settled
like a blight upon their race, destroying its vitality and
arresting its progress, and are conscious of the splendid
opportunity, afforded by the British protectorate, of
getting rid of these customs. They feel the importance
of the advice given by experienced and thoughtful
Englishmen, like Sir Alfred Lyall, who work to advance
their welfare and to see it really advanced to a certain
extent by themselves. ‘We may hope that all reflect-

c

18 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

ing and far-sighted natives of that class, which we are
rapidly training up in large towns in political knowledge
and social freedom, will perceive that England’s prime
function in India is at present this, to superintend the
tranquil elevation of the whole moral and intellectual
standard. Those who are interested in such a change
in the ethics of their country, in broadening the realms
of the known and the true, must see how ruinously
premature it is to quarrel with the English Govern-
ment upon details of administration, or even upon
what are called constitutional questions V

Being convinced of the good intentions of the
British Government and its desire to elevate the people,
the minority we are speaking of use their strength to
help forward its efforts and to extract as much out of
the present favourable times as possible for the social
and moral advancement of the people. With this
conviction always before them, they labour earnestly
for their countrymen and women in every province of
this vast land. They are a small band, working in
harmony, though scattered over the continent, and at
a great sacrifice of time and resources. Working
incessantly, they have formed a movement within
a few years, which, for its far-reaching usefulness, rivals
any of the more attractive agencies started by the
more popular political party. For their lofty purpose,
their disinterested efforts on behalf of the weak and
the suffering, and their personal sacrifices, they may
well be compared to the famous group of philanthropists
whom Sir James Stephen has popularized by the name

1 Asiatic Studies , p, 305.

The System of Education.

19

of the Clapham Sect, and who fought so valiantly,
persistently, and at last successfully for the emancipa-
tion of slaves about the beginning of this century. Of
nothing could England be more justly proud than of
having been the means of organizing this small band
of reformers in India, imbued not only with the
literature and learning, but also with the real Christian
charity of the West.

At the head of these stands the subject of our
sketch, who has used all his great gifts for the advance-
ment of the cause, the vital importance of which he
was really the first to recognize, and which, but for
him, it is not too much to say, would never have
obtained its now universal recognition. How he
realized social reform as the one great task of his life,
devoting to it everything in his power, and making for
it sacrifices which alone stamp him as a rare character
in a self-seeking age; how, from a hopeless and
discredited cause, ridiculed as utterly impracticable, he
gave to it its proper place as the burning question of
the day, involving the happiness of millions, and
changed almost entirely in its favour the current of
the influential opinion which at first ran against it;
and how, when he finally succeeded in rousing the
authorities to a due sense of their responsibility in
the matter, and in obtaining a legislative measure of
relief which, though small at present, may develop later
into much larger proportions ; how he met the obloquy
and misrepresentation of those very classes whom he
had devoted his life to benefit,— all this we may now
proceed briefly to narrate.

CHAPTER II.

Early life: his Mother’s Influence— Her Death and its effects—
Struggles and Vicissitudes School Days — The Rev. Mr. Dixon — Literary
Training.

Behramji Malabari was born in the year 1853-4, in
the city of Baroda, the capital of the Gaikwad, one of
the surviving group of rulers who formed in the last
century the much-dreaded Mahratta confederacy. His
father was Dhanjibhai Mehta, a clerk in the service of
the State, who died, leaving his widow and child in
a helpless condition. Dhanjibhai Mehta does not
seem to have been of much help to the family even
when alive, as owing to differences with other members
of the ‘joint family,’ his wife had to leave her hu sband’s
house at Baroda and go to settle again in her birth-
place, Surat, with her little child of two. This journey,
which is now performed in about three hours by rail,
was even so lately as forty years ago fraught with
peculiar difficulties and danger. The Gaikwad govern-
ment has only recently passed into strong hands, able
and willing to protect the people from lawlessness.
Under former administrations the territories were
infested by wild tribes, and travelling was very unsafe.
Bhils, Girasias, and Pindaris, who were the terror and

Early Life of Behramji Malabari.

21

the curse of Western and Central India, even under
the British, till eighty years ago, when, by an organized
effort, they were run down and their power broken by
the Marquis of Hastings, still survived in the native
States, that had probably connived at, if not actually
encouraged, their rise. Old men in the Gaikwad
territories still recall with a shudder the terrible
periodic raids of these banditti, made in open defiance
of all lawful authority, and sweeping away in their
merciless career men, women and children, cattle and
crop alike. These raids are not quite unknown even
now in some native States, notably Kathiawad, which
is perhaps the last resort of the banditti, as its jungles
contain the only lions to be found in Western India.
It was a party of one of these lawless tribes, the Bhils,
that fell in with the poor exile from her husband’s home,
just out of her teens, and laden with her precious
charge, the little boy of two, in a hay-cart. But they
who came to plunder, and possibly to kill, remained to
caress the child and protect the mother, undertaking
to send them safe to their destination with presents
for both !

The narrative of this lucky escape, says Malabari,

‘ was repeated to me by my mother whenever I was
ill, after which both of us prayed to God.’ This is
a characteristic trait, early developed and always the
strongest, in his character. He is, above everything,
prayerful, a ‘ prayerful poet,’ with the religious senti-
ment prominent and largely cultivated. His writings
show this abundantly. But the trait is still better
illustrated by his whole life, which is a beautiful

22 India : Forty Years of Progress and, Reform.

instance of religious culture. This he seems to have
inherited from his mother, no ordinary woman, but one
quite worthy of such an extraordinary character as her
son has proved himself to be. Indeed, as the son is
never tired of repeating, without such a mother he
would not have been what he is. Apart from hereditary
influences, which are subtle and elude close analysis
it was his environment during tender years, the close
communion in which he lived with such a mother, that
probably gave the bent to his life, which he has followed
throughout, emerging at last as an active philanthropist,
undaunted by dangers and difficulties, or rather seeking
these for the sake of overcoming them. The mother,
who had the courage to leave home, under persecution,
travel through deadly dangers with her little son at
her breast in a hay-cart, and set up for herself in
a new town, with ‘ the world all before her where to
choose, and Providence her guide ’ ; the mother that
considered all the boys in the street her own sons, and
refused to save the life of her own child on a critical
occasion by imperilling that of the child of another
and a stranger, was surely worthy of a son who has
undertaken to champion the cause of women as of his
own mother and sisters and daughters, and who has,
for this self-imposed task, put up with obloquy and
insult, has seen his purest motives questioned and

unworthy ones imputed, without ever swerving from
the path of duty.

Bhikhibai was, indeed, a remarkable woman, whom
her son resembles physically as well as morally. Her
short stature, light complexion, roundish face, and large.

Early Life of Behramji Malabari.

23

far-looking eyes, may be traced more or less in him.
That she was a strong-minded and firm-willed woman,
we have already seen. But she had as soft and large
a heart, with tender feelings for all, regardless of creed
or colour, as she had a strong mind and firm ■will.
She tried to be useful in her humble sphere, with her
limited resources, and left her mark on the little circle
in which she moved. She had, in common with other
women of her class, some knowledge of herbs, which
she was ever ready to impart to her neighbours in
trouble, who also found in her a willing and ready
helpmate and an excellent adviser. Nor was she
swayed by any narrow exclusive ideas of her duty.
Though a Parsi, she mixed freely with Hindus,
without imbibing any of the rigid caste prejudices of
the latter. She once took up tenderly a half-dead
infant, lying in a basket near her door, and at once
put it to her breast without inquiring as to its caste, as
nearly every Indian woman would have done. The
infant turned out to be of the lowest caste, that of
Mahars or sweepers ; and she had, for some time after,
to bear the raillery and taunts of her Parsi neighbours.
On another occasion, when her beloved son was stricken
with small-pox, and on the point of death, she refused
to listen to a quack, who advised her, as the only way
of saving her son; to cut off the live nails and eye-
brows of another boy, and offer them as an appeasing
sacrifice to the goddess of small-pox : in India there
are gods and goddesses of everything, even of diseases.
Though tremblingly anxious for the recovery of her
son, who was her all-in-all, Bhikhibai would not employ

24 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

such cruel means as to endanger the life of another’s
son even to save her own. ‘ All the boys in the street
are my own sons,’ she generously cried out, even in
her extreme anxiety to save her own. And' she had
the reward of her generosity. Her son recovered,
when, as usual with her, she offered a sacrifice of
grateful prayers to her living God.

Such was Bhikhibai. Her son has celebrated her
virtues in prose and verse. ‘ What a mother mine
was ! ’ he writes in one place, ‘ a picture of self-sacrifice.
Some people live to die ; others are prepared to die
so that they may live. My mother was one of these.'
She died at thirty-three, but still she lives in the
memory of many who knew her. To me she has been
and will be alive always. How can a mother die ?
There is an aroma of immortality about the word
Mother, and the idea it clothes ... I carry my mother
about in the spirit. She is always present to me. In

every good woman I see my mother ; I pity every bad
or ill-used woman for my mother’s sake.’

A few years after Bhikhibai’s arrival at Surat she
ha.d to marry again, a relative, Merwanji Malabari by
name, who adopted her son, and whose name has now
been made a household word throughout India. This
marriage was contracted partly that the adoptive
father might be of worldly use to her son, and partly
to help her parents. But, as might be expected, it
turned out unhappy. Merwanji had a druggist’s shop,
and dealt in sandalwood and spices imported by him
from the Malabar coast, which accounts for his surname
of Malabari. At first he appears to have been in easy

Early Life of Bekramji Malabari. 25

*

circumstances, but owing to the loss of a ship he was
reduced to straits. Thus the mother’s hope of his
being useful to her son was frustrated, and the boy had
to undergo a severe apprenticeship of life very early.
The stepfather, though he survived his wife long and
died about ten years ago, was of very little help to
the boy. During the first twelve years of his life
Behramji was entirely under the care of his mother,
who did her best to mould his genius and to render
sober and steady his wandering habits. This maternal
influence of Bhikhibai may be likened to that which
Goethe’s mother, Frau Aja, had on that great man’s
stormy boyhood and early life. Goethe, too, was a
man of strong passions and stubborn will, and having
lost his father’s control early, had to depend upon the
mother’s guidance. Bhikhibai, like Frau Aja, was
a woman of strong individuality and common sense,
and knew, in her own humble way, how to mould the
Character of her wayward son.

During these twelve years, the period of his boy-
hood— for, as we shall see, his manhood began soon
after— he seems to have led a sort of Bohemian life,
going from school to school, changing one eccentric
teacher for another, and learning little in a methodic
way from his books. But he learnt what was of greater
importance to him, perhaps, in after life — to observe
men and their ways, and to take a keen interest in
human affairs. The pictures which he has drawn of
his early teachers and companions show that even then
he had begun to observe and study his fellows, and
what is more, to make allowance for their weaknesses

26 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

and shortcoming's. A very kindly tone pervades these
sketches ; and even when wronged, he guards himself
against being unjust. Indeed, the wonder is, that
having so early passed through such gloomy and
embittering phases of life as he depicts, he has not
become a cynic, as would have been the case with
most He has rather become more tolerant, and all
the readier to find redeeming features in dark spots.
Even of such a wild bully as his first Parsi teacher,
and a tyrant like his next Hindu preceptor, he has
many kind things to say. Then he had also some
objectionable companions, which was but natural in
a school where very little discrimination is shown in
herding together the scholars. But he had, also, some
softening influence in the companionship of a spiritually
minded girl who was, he says, the dearest friend he
had in his school-days. Another powerful influence
exercised on him then was that of the peculiar poetry
of the Khiahs, itinerant bards, who were well known
in Gujarat until within a few years ago. Like the
troubadours and trouveurs of France, and the
minnesingers of Germany, they travelled about from
place to place, leading a semi-ascetic life, and dependent
on alms, gaining a precarious livelihood by their voice
and instruments. Though much of their language
was Hindi, they were singularly liberal in their views,
which were eclectic and free from the narrowness of
creed and country. Their poetry was originally meta-
physical and pure, and some of the best ethical songs
in the Gujarati language have been composed by these
bards. But in course of time it has degenerated into

Early Life of Behramji Malabari.

27

»

materialism and even sensualism. The later genera-
tions of these bards indulged more or less in ribaldry ;
and the original philosophical sects among them, which
had risen owing to speculative differences, degenerated
into parties who often used much more material
arguments than figures and syllogisms, and generally
ended their discussions in street brawls, in which the
hand, and not the head, had a prominent part. Surat
was, in Malabari’s early days, frequented by these
minstrels , and by his musical tastes, and still more
perhaps by his Bohemian habits, he was soon attracted
towards them. He was sometimes involved in the
vortex of their rowdy tournaments, and enjoyed the
music as well as the fun of broken head and lacerated
skin. But he had caught the genuine poetic inspira-
tion from the songs of the earlier bards, whose master-
pieces he studied and imitated. . Malabari came out
as a poet in Gujarati, his mother-tongue, and the
poetical instinct was roused in him by these street
bards of Surat. The strong ethical bias in his poetry
is chiefly due to his serious nature, which loves to
ponder on the realities of life and its complex problems.
But it is also partly owing to the study of these older
lyrics. There are many such in his first volume of
Gujarat verse, whose title shows the preponderance
of the ethical element, Niti-Vinod. His latest book of
verse, m his mother-tongue, is also ethical and philo-
sophical, and shows traces still of his early passion for
the vagaries of the itinerant bards. J

Thus gay as well as unconsciously grave, he was
passing his early years in apparent ease, as also amid

28 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

some difficulties, under the protection of his mother.
She knew the weakness of her son, and tried earnestly
to steady him and to wean him from his wandering
habits. She grieved at his passion for music, which
threatened to outrun all limits and to lead him into
keeping objectionable company. Having a very sweet
voice, of rare compass, the boy was much in request
with the singers, and in this the mother must have
discerned a peculiar danger. She, however, brought
him round by affectionate reasoning, and made him
promise 3, promise since faith fully kept — never to sm^
in public, nor associate with the bards. She had also
detected in him a tendency to drink, borrowed uncon-
sciously from some of his thoughtless companions.
To break this habit in time she confronted the boy
with a ghastly object-lesson, the sight of an unfortunate
woman lying on her back near the city gate, dead
drunk, towards the evening. The mother, with her
usual charity, sent her boy to fetch some curdled milk,
a popular antidote for drunkenness, and reluctantly
left the woman after having thrust the milk down
her throat and turned her into a more decent posture.
That sight must have cured the boy on the spot.

Thus the mother was his good genius during her
lifetime. And she continued to be more so after
her death. She was stricken down by cholera, dying
in her thirty-third year, leaving her son in his twelfth,
alone and absolutely friendless. The stroke came
swift, sudden, and heavy. It cut his life into twain.
With his mother he bade farewell to his boyhood,
his frivolities and indiscretion, and became at once

Early Life of Behramji Malabari.

29

and for ever a man. As he has himself suns' in

o

touching verse,

£ She clasped a child, with sad emotions wan,

But when the clasp relaxed, there was left a man/

His mother’s death, so terrible a blow in itself, had,
however, a chastening influence upon him, and settled
his wavering mind. Nothing that she did in life for
him — and what did she not do ? — was so important
to his future prospects as her death. It came at a
critical moment of his mental and moral development,
which henceforward seems to have proceeded in
a regular sober order. Malabari is undoubtedly a
genius : one has only to come in contact with him
to discover this, if indeed it is not patent through his
works. But there was a risk, as in most such cases,
of this erratic genius failing to find its true sphere of
activity, and either becoming perverted, or frittering
itself away in obscurity and inanition. Those who
know him as he now is can hardly realize that this
shy, shrinking, self-denying friend of theirs should
ever have been a forward, aggressive, self-asserting
street-boy, ringleader in many a frolic, and always to
the fore where risk and fun alike were to be faced.
But the lives of great men afford many instances of
this kind of sudden transformation. Augustine is,
perhaps, the most notable instance in point. From
a youth, wholly abandoned to the world and its vicious
ways, taking life easily and thinking of little beyond
the enjoyment of the moment, he suddenly, as if by
miraculous interposition, became serious and pious,
weighed down heavily by the stern realities of life,

30 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform .

and after a career of immense usefulness as philan-
thropist and philosopher, died the death of the saint,
honoured by the entire Christian world as the greatest
of the Fathers of the Church. The life of Addison
furnishes another such example. He, who was known
in after-life as a bashful, taciturn man, whose lips were
sealed on the appearance of a single stranger, was,
while at school, up to any ‘ lark/ and was once even
a ringleader in a barring out. Boys will be boys,
after all, and most men are the better for having been
boys at one time of their life. Malabari, as we have
said, was a boy in the full sense of the word, and
extracted the utmost enjoyment out of this, on the
whole, happy period of life. But in his wildest boyish
mood we find nothing cruelly wanton ; on the contrary,
in several of the stories he has related of his early
days in his delightful autobiographic sketches, we
already trace his generosity and tenderness of heart,
ever ready to befriend a fellow-being, man, woman or
child, in trouble ; and even, if need be, to bring trouble
upon himself in the act. But the terrible calamity
of his mother s death suddenly and for ever dissipated
his boyish dreams, and transported him into a totally
different and higher sphere. He becomes, as we have
seen, ‘a man at twelve/left without means and friends.
Hitherto his mother had been to him ‘a mighty oak,
under whose boughs he had rested secure i but
henceforward he had to endure

* Sunshine and rain as he might,

Bare, unshaded, alone,

Lacking the shelter of her.’

Matthew Arnold, Rugby Chapel.

Early Life of Behramji Malabari.

3i

This protection, this shadow was gone, leaving the
boy behind an orphan at twelve. The playful r ois terer,
who had hitherto moved in his little paradise of boyish
fun and frolic, was rudely awakened to the stern
reality of existence which now presented itself to him,
an aspect shorn of all the early romance. The
necessity of self-support and self- vigilance, which
comes to many later, and to some never, pressed
itself upon Malabari very prematurely, though, on
the whole, also very wholesomely. The circumstances
in which he found himself forced him to discover
powers hitherto latent in him. The trial was a severe
one, but the boy rose to the occasion and emerged
from it quite changed, much the wiser and stronger.
The next ten years of his life, from twelve to twenty-
two, are the formative period of his character, during
which were developed the traits which distinguish his
latter years, and by chastening self-discipline were
repressed those minor defects which human flesh is
heir to, and which so often try to drag down a lofty
character. It was the experiences gained in this
period that made him what he is, the ever-ready, self-
sacrificing champion of human wrong and misery,
wherever found, and however deeply and strongly
rooted. Born of the people and brought up among
them, he now lived in their midst and shared their
pleasures and their privations — in short, took a keen
human interest in men and their ways. From the
touch which he gained with the people even in
the lowest ranks of life during those years sprang
up the inspiration of his career as an active philan-

32 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

thropist and a man of letters. Though a man of
culture in the best sense of this often misapplied word,
he has never allowed his culture to detach him from
the mass' of humanity around him and to make him
‘ live in a world apart,’ as has been unfortunately the
case with most so-called cultured men. Though an
ascetic in his habits, having few wants, and these easily
supplied, shrinking from contact with the outer world,
not from a sense of superiority but from an instinctive
dread of publicity, and though in intellect soaring far
above his fellows, genius as he is ; yet in feeling he
lives, on a level with the lowliest, entering into all
the miseries and sufferings of human life. In this
he is, no doubt, greatly helped by his poetic faculty.
The strong and fertile imagination, which creates for
the poet an ideal world of his own, can also make him
realize much better than ordinary men that hard,
matter-of-fact world around him. Imagination is the
greatest aid to sympathy. One feels best for sufferings
which fall personally under one’s own observation and
experience. And the strong imagination, acting in
harmony with a keen sensibility, makes the sufferings
of strangers one’s own ; the distant in time and space
and relation is made present, and the poet feels for
the woes of a bygone age, for the sufferings of his
contemporaries in the distant land, or for his country-
men with whom he has very little in common, as if
he were feeling for himself and for those most near
and dear to him. Burke, when he prosecuted Warren
Hastings as his bitterest personal enemy, and declaimed
on behalf of the Indian peoples who were separated

Struggles and Vicissitudes. 33

from him by half the circumference of the globe,
whom he had never seen and with whom he had
nothing whatever in common, is one of the best
instances on record of such a strong sympathetic
imagination set on fire by the mere reading and
hearing of human wrong. And most active philan-
thropists derive their first impulse from imagination.
Only the imaginative element has been swamped by
their active philanthropy, and they have left no separate
memorial of their poetic faculty. Malabari has been
more fortunate in this matter, as he has made as deep
a mark on his generation by his poetic effusions as
by his active humane efforts. He has been still more '
fortunate in making the two interdependent; he has
made his poetry subserve his philanthropic objects,
and has infused into the latter a good deal of his
poetic genius. His poetry, in fact all his writings,
have a strong human interest about them, which is
quite characteristic of the writer.

For most of this he silently laid the foundation
during the period of his youth, commencing at twelve,
at which tender age, on his mother’s death, as we have
seen, he found the w' vld was all before him where to
choose his place of vest. Some natural tears he shed,
but wiped them soon, and manfully set about making
his choice. ‘Manfully,’ for, as he says, he had actually
become a ‘ man ’ at twelve ; he began to take views of
life, which persons of twice this age rarely learn to
take : —

‘ A man at twelve, in whom my grief confide ?

No friend to -watch me but the sainted guide.

And when this thought upon my reason stole.

D

34 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

A sudden desolation overspread my soul.

Now sober grown, my mind to study turn’d ;

And thus imped’d, I fresh to school adjourn’d.’

He -now longed for knowledge, and looked about
for means to obtain it in his destitute condition. The
pursuit of knowledge under difficulties is always
a congenial theme with biographers, who dwell fondly
on the efforts of their young heroes in overcoming
obstacles in their path to enlightenment and greatness.
We cannot afford to pause here to tell at due length
the story of our boy scholar’s struggle with adversity,
however much we might like to dilate on the subject.
Suffice it to say that the battle ended victoriously,
as every such battle should end, though, unfortu-
nately, in many instances it does not. Many a rising
genius proves unequal to the hard struggle for
existence, and is often repressed or crushed ; or, if it
survives, lives on in a mutilated, soured condition.
Rare are the instances where we see, as in the case
of Malabari, the young man emerging from the
conflict, not only triumphant, but all the better for
having undergone the baptism of fire.

This story is as instructive in the annals of self-
help as any to be found in the valuable books of
Mr. Smiles or Mr. Craik. Malabari had not entirely
wasted his boyhood in rowdy fun. Though not
systematically, he had learnt much, and his superiority
over his fellows was even then discerned by the more
observant. He had no difficulty in finding pupils,
some of them older than himself, and by teaching
these he was enabled to support as well as educate
himself. His mornings and evenings were given to

School Days.

35

making a small income in this way, while during the
intervening hours he attended school, hie was now
seized by a strong desire to obtain knowledge, and in
spite of poverty and want he found means to satisfy
it. He was fortunate in joining a good school, and
still more so in his Head Master. It was the Irish
Presbyterian Mission School, then flourishing at Surat
under its excellent head, the Rev. William Dixon, M^ A
These mission schools are a distinct feature in the
educational system of India, which owes a deep
debt to them. Nothing probably impresses on the
mind of the people the unselfishness of England
in holding and governing India so much as the
missionary efforts of the ruling race, and the generous
spirit in which they are made. The English missionary
is required, by the side of the English civilian and
soldier, to give a correct and complete idea of all that
the paramount power means to do for the people. It
cannot but be touching to find people in a distant land
caring so much for the spiritual welfare of their fellow-
subjects, and trying to do their best to enlighten, after
their own lights, their less favoured brethren ; to see
'the Scotch crofters and Irish peasants, themselves
steeped in poverty, contribute voluntarily and cheer-
fully their hard-earned pennies for the education and
conversion of the Indians. The direct results of these
missionary efforts, in which not only does each of
the three countries of the United Kingdom take its
proper share, but to which also the more distant and
disinterested country of New England beyond the
Atlantic contributes its mite, may not be encouraging ;

D 2

3 6 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

nay, they may be said to be disappointing. But
indirectly, by the means which they employ of
disseminating knowledge among the masses who
would otherwise remain in ignorance and superstition,
the missionaries are doing great good to the country.
India has attracted the kindly attention of nearly all
Churches and all denominations of Christianity, most
of which have their schools and colleges, to which the
natives flock in even greater number than to similar
institutions under the direct care of Government.
Though they have not yet succeeded in converting
anything like an adequate proportion of their scholars,
the missionaries may take legitimate pride in being so
largely instrumental in bringing about the remarkable
renascence of the Indian intellect, which is now being
witnessed all over the land. The whole country is
parcelled out among the various rival Churches, and
in many of the large towns they are all to be found
working side by side, though not always shoulder to
shoulder.

It was one of these schools that young Malabari
joined at Surat, and where, under very sound and
sympathetic guidance, he began his acquaintance with
the English language, which later developed into
absolute mastery. The Head Master, William Dixon,
was the type of a true missionary, pious and unworldly;
and seeing the work done by his young pupil, he took
very kindly to him and encouraged him in various
ways. He introduced him into his family, a great
privilege for a young man in his position, and brought
him under the beneficial influence of Mrs. Dixon, which

The Rev. IV. Dixon.

37

Malabari still remembers gratefully. The exemplary
Christian life led by the little household at Surat
impressed him deeply, and must be reckoned as the
first formative influence on his character during this
period. Two diligent years were spent thus, in learning
and teaching, and so rapid was his progress that he
was fairly ready now to appear for the University
Entrance or Matriculation Examination that is held
every year at the Presidency town of Bombay. There
was the pecuniary difficulty, however, in the way of
a journey to Bombay, and of paying the fees, which
would have been at once overcome if the shy young
man had told Mr. Dixon of it. But he was too shy to
ask for anything. Help, however, came from a very
unexpected quarter. A Parsi money-lender in the
street, who was known to be very close-fisted, hearing
of the case, volunteered to help our young genius, and
it may be taken for granted that the old gentleman was
glad all his life he had done so.

Thus Malabari left Surat and came to Bombay for
his examination, intending to return soon after. But
circumstances tending otherwise, he has ever since
been domiciled in Bombay. The examination proved
too stiff in one branch, and he failed to pass it. The test
was a severe one, as it included many heterogeneous
subjects, demanding a fair knowledge of the English
language, itself a very difficult foreign tongue to the
Indian youth, and of another so-called classical language,
with the elements of history, ancient and modern,
geography, political and physical, natural science,
including astronomy and chemistry, and mathematics,

38 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

including arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. This

must be a difficult course for any lad of fifteen. But

in the case of the Indian the difficulty is enhanced by

the fact that knowledge in all these multifarious

subjects has to be imparted through the foreign

nghsh tongue. The strain thus early put upon the

young mind at the threshold of the University is

continued in an aggravated form during its career

therein ; it is stuffed with a bewildering diversity of

subjects at high pressure, to the detriment of originality

and sound judgement. This heavy mental strain re-acte

on the body, and the naturally weak constitution of the

ndian youth, who has to pursue his studies under

circumstances widely different from those of his brother

m Europe, without physical exercise and healthy social

relaxation, is soon undermined, physical and mental

decay often prematurely sets in, and many promising

careers are cut short in the early prime of life. Many

instances of such premature and rapid deaths among

young University men have only recently occurred

an have set the public pondering seriously over the

causes of this melancholy result. But there are many

more suc ^ men, who, though alive, have belied the

promise of their early youth, owing to the premature

decay of mental and physical vitality, brought about

y an unnatural and, in some respects, false system of
education.

Malabari fortunatety escaped the rigours of this
ystem. Though his aspirations after an academic
career were very high and intense at first, he had to
yie to circumstances, and give up all hopes of entering

Literary Training.

39

college. The entrance test, as we have said, was too
severe for him in one branch, that of mathematics,
though in all other subjects, especially in English, he
did very well. The youthful ardour of our aspirant
after University honours was thus damped in the
very beginning, and he must return to Surat, to his
pupils and his school. But a friend to whom he was
introduced thought he could as well have pupils in
Bombay as at Surat, and introduced him in his turn to
the Head Master of a large Parsi High School, who at
once saw that there was more in the shy young man
than met the eye. Pupils were readily found for him,
and an adequate income was assured. He now earned
his livelihood in ease and in a congenial manner; he
had, moreover, leisure left for satisfying his own thirst
for knowledge and for literary pursuits.

He cultivated his natural bent for literature,
especially poetry, and ranged, in a desultory manner,
over a wide field of English verse. His mastery over
the language was increasing, and it is interesting to
find him appreciating rationally and critically, even at
that early age, most of the greatest poets of England.

‘ I have ranged aimlessly,’ says he, ‘ over a very -wide field
of poetry, English as well as Indian ; also Persian and
Greek translated. As to English masters, Shakespeare
was my daily companion during school days, and a
long while after that. Much of my worldly knowledge
I owe to this greatest of seers and practical thinkers.
Milton filled me with awe. Somehow, I used to feel
unhappy when the turn came for Paradise Lost. His
torrents of words frightened me as much by their

40 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

stateliness as by monotony. Nor could I sympathize
with some of the personal teachings of this grand old
singer. Wordsworth is my philosopher, Tennyson my
poet. Amongst my many prizes at school I remember
having received a bulky volume, named Selections
from British Poets, carried home for me by an older
companion. I used to dip into this unwieldy folio
and got to know a little of Chaucer, Spenser, and
other stars, earlier as well as later, through it. At
school I had Campbell for another favourite, preferred
Dryden to Pope, and Scott to several of his contem-
poraries. Cowper and Goldsmith I have always
va ued as dear old schoolmasters, Byron and Burns
are boon companions when in the mood ; Shelley and

Keats as explorers of dreamland, who fascinate one by
their subtle fanciest

CHAPTER III.

Early literary efforts— Vernacular Literature— The Rev. Dr. Wilson —
The Parsis, their position and influence— Special efforts at their conversion
to Christianity — Niti-Vinod. Hindu Gujarati and Parsi Gujarati.

From reading and admiring poetry to writing it was
but one step, and that was soon taken. Indeed, many
of his poems were written very early, when a mere
schoolboy, and his first appearance before the public
was as a poet. But it was not as a poet in the foreign
English language just yet. It was his mother-tongue
that claimed him first as a poet. And it is his mother-
tongue, too, that has welcomed the latest offspring of
his muse, as may be seen from his little volume of
poems, entitled Experiences of Life, which he has
lately published. Born in the very heart of Gujarat,
and bred in one of its chief cities amid Gujarati
surroundings, Malabari has a great affection for the
Gujarati language, in which he lisped out his first
thoughts, in which he heard those songs of the
minstrels, which, as we have seen, had such a fasci-
nation for him in his restless early days, whose poetical
literature, such as it was, he cultivated with fond
affection, and which was hallowed to him by many
grateful associations.

In this love for his vernacular language, which he
has practically shown by enriching its literature with

42 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

!

several volumes, considered as standard works by
competent judges, Malabari stands almost alone among
his cultured contemporaries. With the spread of a
knowledge of the English language and the splendid
literature, not of England alone, but of the whole
civilized world, ancient and modern, embodied in it,
the old languages of India are naturally losing ground
among the newly-educated classes. These, being-
introduced to the far richer language of their rulers,
and perceiving its many great advantages, are ex-
hausting their efforts in obtaining a mastery over it.
Among its most important advantages, they have
found that it can supply the outward uniting bond to
the peoples of the various provinces, and thus aid
them in giving vent to their present political aspirations.

India being a Vast continent, and its different

\

provinces being in reality separate countries, like
those of Europe, differing from one another in race,
religion, and climate, it has no common language,
which is the very first, though not the only condition
of nationality. It has a score of vernaculars, spoken
in its various parts, and quite unintelligible and foreign
to one another. The Bengali spoken in the north-
east, and the Marathi spoken in the west, differ as
much from each other and from the Tamil spoken in
the south and the Hindi in the north, as Spanish differs
from Russian. The newly-educated classes, with strong
political aspirations, observing this drawback to mutual
intercourse, are rapidly making the English language
their common medium of communication, whereby the
barriers created by the vernaculars are thrown down.

Vernacular Literature. 43

The rulers’ tongue is rapidly becoming the uniting
bond of thought and speech to the heterogeneous
mass of educated youths throughout the continent.
This is in itself a proud achievement, and it must be
very gratifying to an Englishman to contemplate that
his language has gone forth, out of its own small island
home, to the far East, and is working there a marvellous
revolution. This triumph is the greater, because India j
is no new country, wanting a language and literature ;
but one in reality having languages which were
perfected before English began to be uttered by
human lips, and it contains poetical and philosophical
literature of a very high order.

But what has been the gain of the foreign language
has_proy ed the ruin of the indigenous tongues. Our
educated men vie with one another in acquiring a
mastery of the former, and neglect the latter as useless.
The vernaculars are being everywhere supplanted,
even in every-day intercourse, among the younger
generation. The best talents being drawn towards the
much more attractive language of the rulers, the
vernaculars have to languish in the hands of in-
competent writers without culture. It might have
been expected that when first the native Indian mind
•was brought into contact with the English language
and its literature, it would improve and invigorate its
own indigenous languages by this wholesome contact,
and infuse into them new strength derived from the
foreigner. What happened to the English language
itself in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when
English scholars were largely introduced to the classical

44 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

languages and literatures of Greece and Rome, might
also have fallen to the lot of the Indian vernacu-
lars ; and they too would have become more elastic
and robust, with a more varied and wealthy literature.
Instead of neglecting, almost abandoning their own,
the Indian youths might improve them by adapting
and ingrafting what they find best in the new. Perhaps
a later generation may do that. So far, however, it has
not been done, and it may be said that the rising
talents of the country are doing very little to cultivate
their mother-tongues and so enrich their literatures.
This is really crippling their own usefulness. The
English educated class must, in the very nature of
things, be a very small minority, and it can hope to
influence the great mass of its countrymen only
through their own indigenous languages. An English
speech or an English book by an educated Indian can
only be meant for the eyes and ears of the rulers, or
for the small band of his educated fellows. It cannot
reach the overwhelming majority of the people, whom
it should be the chief aim of the educated minority to
influence and improve with the aid of the superior
light which they have seen. A command over the
vernaculars, if wielded by men who have also had
access to Western learning, would have the greatest
influence over the people in India

This power it has been the good fortune of very
few to wield. In the west of India Malabari is one of
the very few who possess it. He alone may be said
to have excelled in both the foreign language as well
as his own vernacular, and enriched each with the best

Vernacular Literature. 45

things, derived from the other. The reproach, to
which most of our English educated men are liable,
of allowing their mother-tongues to languish, and
neglecting so far the interests of their uneducated
countrymen, cannot apply to him. He has from the
first used his mother-tongue to address himself to his
own people. / His poetical genius finds congenial vent
in Gujarati, and through his poems he has success-
fully sought to impart, in a pleasing channel, much
that is best in Western culture, combined with the
excellences of indigenous thought and language.
Malabari is a born poet, and it may be with truth
said of him that he ‘ lisped in numbers, for the num-
bers came ’ to him. Many of his poems, published
later, were jotted down in early boyhood, in happy
moments of inspiration, and many more must have
perished unwritten and unrecorded. When he took
passionately to study and self-culture he polished some
of these early effusions, added to them others, and
made up the whole into a little volume. / This was
the sole capital that he brought with him to Bombay
from Surat, at the age of fifteen, much as Johnson
came to London from his native town of Lichfield
with his life of Savage and the tragedy of Irene in
his pocket. The manuscript was fated to be neglected
for some time yet, ere it could see the light of day.
But before that it proved signally useful to him in an
unexpected way. It became the means of bringing him
out of his obscurity, and of his being introduced to a
man who exercised great influence at a critical time on
his life and character.

46 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

In a happy moment Malabari resolved to take his
little manuscript of Gujarati verse to the Rev. J. Van
Somern Taylor, who was one of his examiners, and
well known for his mastery over the Gujarati language.
The missionaries have recognized the great importance
of learning the vernaculars of the provinces in which
they have to work, as they have to deal with the
ignorant masses of the population. Hence their
. attitude towards these languages has been quite the
opposite of that of the educated natives. It is a very
fortunate thing for the vernaculars that cultured
Europeans leave their homes and settle in the country,
devoting their best efforts to cultivating these verna-
culars assiduously. Some of the best books recently
published m the languages are by such scholarly
missionaries, who have produced excellent dictionaries,
grammars, and other useful works. Mr. Taylor had
devoted himself to the Gujarati language, which he
laid under lasting obligation by writing its standard
grammar, based on principles of philology. His
acquaintance with Gujarati literature was accurate and
wide, and his scholarship was critical, owing to his
knowledge of European methods.

Mr. Taylor was very agreeably surprised at the hiah
order of merit evinced by the Parsi stranger’s verses,
and became deeply interested in his discovery. A new
genius was before him, he felt sure, and he tried to
help him to rise. With this object, he introduced him
to one who could help the boy effectively. This was
the famous Scotch missionary, Dr. John Wilson, who
was then nearing the end of his long career of varied

47

Dr. John Wilson.

public usefulness and private virtues. He had come
out as a young man in the early part of the century
to Bombay, and domiciling himself there, and devoting
his rare abilities to doing practical good to its peoples,
had exercised a most beneficial influence over two
generations of its life. As scholar, educationist, con-
troversialist, active philanthropist and zealous mis-
sionary, and, above all, as a man of rare public and
private virtues, he made a mark on his times. For
nearly half a century he was the moving spirit and
leader of society in Bombay, and during this whole
period he enjoyed the respect and esteem of the
various rival communities which make up the life of
the Western Presidency of India. Though he had
come out from his native country only as a missionary,
to preach the Gospel according to the lights of his
own denomination to the peoples of Western India,
he took a wider and more liberal view of his duties,
and laboured hard in doing good to the people, spiri-
tually and mentally, in every way he could. Every
scheme of public beneficence found in him a ready
and steady supporter, regardless of creed or colour.
His efforts for the suppression of female infanticide in
Kathiawad and elsewhere, on which subject he wrote
a useful and exhaustive work, attest his practical dis-
interested philanthropy, as he could not hope for the
conversion of those whom he was instrumental in
saving from a cruel death, inflicted by the same
parental hands which nature had provided for their
protection. He cultivated nearly every language,
modern and classical, of the peoples with whom he

48 India ; Fort y Years of Progress and Reform.

had to deal, and obtained a mastery over them which
enabled him to publish several important works, highly
valued by Indian scholars themselves. He was one
of the earliest English scholars to study the Zend and
Pahlavi languages, in which the fragments of the
sacred books of the Parsis are preserved, and his
book on this religion is the first which shows acquaint-
ance with these writings at first hand. His labours
on the cave temples of Western India, and his other
archaeological studies, showed literary zeal and ability
which alone would have sufficed to make him famous.
As an educationist, he did probably the greatest o-ood
He presided over the birth of European education in
the country, and followed it throughout his career with
anxious and watchful care, aiding the Government in
its efforts, as well as working independently with his
chosen band of devoted followers. He founded schools
in various towns, which disseminated primary educa-
tion among the poorest, whom he took specially under
his charge; while the college which now bears his
honoured name was founded and conducted by him
to impart to young Indians the highest secular and
religious knowledge of the West. The Bombay Uni-
versity, with which he was connected from its very
foundation in 1858, and of which he was for a long
time the unofficial head as Vice-Chancellor, received
the benefit of his wide experience gained in Europe as
well as in India, and was guided during the period of
its infancy by his wise counsels.

But amidst his various self-imposed duties, Dr. Wilson
never forgot that his principal duty was to disseminate

Position and influence of the Parsis

49

the Word of God and to confute what appeared to
him to be the pernicious errors of Oriental heathen-
dom. . His whole life was dominated by this purpose
to which all others were subordinated. His learning
and scholarship, his dialectical ability, his active philan-
thropy were all dedicated to the service of God and
furthering the knowledge of His Word. He entered
mto religious controversies with the prevailing Indian
sects, doubtless at first with the disinterested object of
exposing their errors and the hope of convincing his
opponents. But his zeal sometimes outran the bounds
of prudence and, it must be added with regret, of
charity. Unnecessary personal bitterness was at times
created, which, instead of bringing Christianity nearer
to the Indian mind, tended to widen the breach and
retard the approach of reconciliation.

An instance of this was his famous controversy with
the Parsis, which was carried on with perhaps needless
ac ,erbity on both sides, and of which ill-feelino- was for
some time the chief result. These descendants of the
ancient Persians and the inheritors of the noble tradi-
tions of Xerxes and Darius, and of the still nobler
faith of the Prophet of Bactria, had found, after
numerous vicissitudes on the fall of their power in
their native country, and the ruin of their religion at
the hands of persecuting Islam in the seventh century,
a peaceful asylum on the Western coast of India under
the Hindus. For centuries, under the Hindu and the
Mahomedan rule, they just managed to exist as
a separate body, with a faith as well as most of the
manners and customs of their own, without merging '

50 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

into the overwhelmingly large communities surround-
ing them. But under the fostering care of the British
they soon found opportunities to develop their ancient
virtues, and became in a short time the leading com-
munity among the natives, owing to their excellent
business qualities, enterprising spirit, quickness of per-
ception, and ready adaptability. They have been the
first to benefit by the English rule in India, and in
their turn they try to transmit these benefits to the
people around them. By their natural ability and
position in the country they were well fitted thus to
be the mediators between the rulers and the ruled;
and they are now playing this part to a considerable
extent. In political and literary matters the Parsis
have led the Hindus and the Mahomedans. At the
head of most political associations, at any rate in
Bombay, and in the vanguard of those who fight,
rightly or wrongly, for the political advancement of
educated Indians, are to be found men of this race.
It is a Parsi for whom has been reserved the unique
position of being the first Oriental to take a seat in
the British House of Commons. In physical matters,

( too > Parsis are rapidly evolving robuster qualities of
I body, which will in the long run make them the equals
of many Western nations, and on which Western
supremacy mainly rests. In social matters they easily
take the lead of their Hindu countrymen, as they are
singularly free from those narrow views of caste which
hamper the latter. As we shall see, it is a Parsi, the
subject of our theme, who has taken up the cause of
social reform among the Hindu population, and tried

5 1

Position and influence of the Parsis.

to better the lot of millions of women, mute victims of
unequal laws and customs manufactured during' the
dark ages of Indian history.

The Parsis have thus been the most prominent
community among the natives : it is scarcely possible
to conceive of the public life of Western India without
them. They have, therefore, attracted the attention
of Europeans to an extent commensurate with their
abilities and importance. Christian missionaries have
sought them specially, and have tried hard to spread
the Christian faith among them, with the hope of
influencing the other Indian communities through the
Parsis. From the early days of proselytizing efforts
to our own, Parsis have been the object of great soli-
citude to European missions. But the men who had
given up all their early possessions, and left their
native country itself, to launch on unknown seas in
order to seek a new home for their ancient faith — men
who,, though a mere handful, preserved their race and
religion intact during twelve stormy centuries in the
country of their adoption — were scarcely the stuff of
which proselytes are made. Those who had resisted
the destructive persecuting force of Islam, were not
likely to yield to the mild arguments of Christian mis-
sionaries. Most efforts to convert them have proved
fruitless. . Beyond stray individual cases of conversion,
Christianity seems to have failed to make way amona
this intelligent and liberal-minded community.

Dr. Wilson realized the importance of convertino-
the Parsis at the very beginning of W s career in
Bombay, and he at once set about the task. He

52 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

preached eloquent sermons, wrote learned treatises,
held conferences, brought his personal influence to
bear on individuals. But most of this to little purpose.
His first great campaign against their religion lasted
for twelve years, during which he exhausted all his
efforts and underwent great sacrifices in order to gain
his disinterested object. But the result was disap-
pointing. The conversion of a few school-boys was
the net gain ; whilst the whole community was made
more hostile than ever to the faith which was sought
to be thrust upon them, and actively resented the zeal
i of the missionaries. Even after this failure, Dr.
Wilson never lost heart, and availed himself of every
opportunity to bring the Parsis to the fold of Christ.
But these attempts tended to exasperate the people.
To judge from the literature to which these efforts
gave rise among the Parsis, their irritation must have
been unlimited, as they attacked the foundation of all
religions in fighting against Christianity, and employed
-the^ arguments of deists like Voltaire and Tom Paine,
whose works they translated into their vernacular.
Who can tell how much of the atheism and indifference
to all religion, which is to be seen among the Parsis at
the present day, is due to the reaction caused in the
last generation by the undoubtedly well-meant but
indiscreet efforts of the missionaries ?

But whatever may be said of his injudicious zeal,
Dr. Wilson’s motive was thoroughly disinterested.
If he had depended on his personal influence, instead
of launching,, into polemics, he would have been pro-
bably more successful. For those who were unmoved

Special efforts for their Conversion.

53

by his logic, however faultless, would relent as soon
as they were brought face to face with his sweet per-
sonal life. In his controversies he sometimes did
great injustice to his heart which overflowed with
charity and goodwill to all. His door was open to
every one in distress, and no one sought his help in
vain. Many a time he was deceived by designing
persons, but he never allowed such untoward occur-
rences to stand in the way of relieving distress. There
must be many persons, still alive, who owe their start
in life and worldly position to the friendly help of this
magnanimous Christian missionary. He had come to
possess influence in the highest quarters, and he used
it all disinterestedly. He took a special interest in
rising talent. And many a struggling young man of
promise was rescued by him, and put on the path to
success.

It was to such a man that Mr. Taylor introduced
young Malabari, at just the time of life to be bene-
fited by contact with a strong and righteous person-
ality. The aged philanthropist was himself struck
by the young Parsi, and took him under his special
charge. He soon arranged to have the little volume
of verse published, after obtaining for it the support
it so richly deserved. He introduced the author to
several influential citizens, who helped him not a little
in his onward career. It may be here mentioned that
Malabari has been fortunate in some of his friends
who took him by the hand at the right time. So far
we have seen that on critical occasions friends came
forward almost providentially to assist him. Later he

54 . ' India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

had much more powerful friends who were willing to

ensure his worldly success. But his unselfishness ap-

pears nowhere more clear and convincing than in his

refusal to aggrandize himself through his friends and

connexions. A man in the position which he came to

occupy must have possessed self-control of no ordinary

kind to have resisted temptations to which most men
yield.

Wilson brought his young scholar to the notice of
the munificent Parsi knight, Sir Cawasji Jehanoier
w ose charities are well known in England as wetl as
ndia. Sir Cawasji seems to have taken very kindly to
his young friend. He introduced him to Mr Martin
Wood, then editor of the 7W wh o, S

Jater, utilized his talents in the field of journalism

“ d f amed him to that noble profession of which
alabari is now the chief ornament among his country-
men.. Dr. Wilson, as we have seen, arranged for the
printing of the little volume of Gujarati verse, ob-
taining for it the support of the Government and of
a ew wealthy citizens ; and the book appeared in 187s

after some delay caused by the author’s ignorance of
business matters.

It was named by its patron Niti-Vinod, or the
Pleasures of Morality. The title is misleading in
one way as it recalls analogous poems in English
wi similar titles, like Campbell’s Pleasures of Hole
ensides Pleasures of the Imagination, and Rogers’
Pleasures of Memory. Niti-Vinod is not one con-
tinuous poem, like these, with a fixed theme, but
a co ection of short poems of very unequal merit, the

Niti-Vinod.

55

best of which are lyrical. The title is justified cranny
by the strong moral tone which pervades the whole, -
and which, in fact, is the chief characteristic of the
writer. Moral earnestness and a strong faith in the
eternal and universal law of right and wrong are the
characteristics of the poems and the poet.

The book is divided into five parts, treating of
moral and religious subjects, metaphysical and social
problems, miscellaneous questions of interest and brief
sketches of the lives of local and other celebrities that
seem to have fired the writer’s enthusiasm. The lines
preaching devotion and detachment from the world
are specially noteworthy, written as they were by
a poet as yet in his teens. In the range of Gujarati
literature it would be difficult to find a poet who, at
twice or three times Malabari’s age, could display his
spiritual insight and wisdom. Some of these early
efforts are equally noteworthy in that we find in them
the first signs of the author’s intense sympathy with
the child-wives and girl-widows of India. The poems
dealing with these subjects are very pathetic, pro-
ceeding from the depth of his heart. How he trans-
lated his thoughts and feelings into action, and
materially helped to alleviate the sufferings which
he here deplores, we shall see in the proper place.

The poems were written in his own vernacular,
which is the language of Gujarat. But this Gujarati
language has split itself almost into two dialects,
owing to the two races that use it, the Hindus and
the Parsis. It is derived from the parent stock of the
Sanskrit, the classical language of ancient India, as

56 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

y*

modi as French and the other Romance languages
•'of Southern Europe are derived from the Latin in
the middle ages. The Hindus try to preserve and
develop this original Sanskrit element, and guard it
jealously against any foreign intrusion. In their
vocabulary and grammar they try as much as possible
to keep close to the classical model. The Parsis, on
the other hand, who have by the necessity of the case
to use the language of the province in which they
have settled for so long, have tried to keep down the
Sanskrit element. They have no such fond regard
for that ancient language as the Hindus have;
Sanskrit is not hallowed to them by glorious associa-
tions of old as in the eyes of these latter. Their
ancient language is Persian, connected through
Pazand and Pahlavi with the Zend or Avesta, the
language in which their oldest sacred books are
written. Their study of Persian has led them to
introduce largely the Persian element into their
Gujarati vernacular, and to eschew as much as possible
the Sanskrit. Latterly, the great zest with which they
have taken to the English language has also made
them introduce an English element into it; English
words are either taken up bodily or slightly modified ;
the structure of sentences is modelled after the
English ; while English modes of expression and
composition are finding almost universal favour among
them. The result has been that there are two kinds
of Gujarati, the Hindu and the Parsi Gujarati, which,
in course of time, may become two distinct dialects
almost unintelligible to each other.

Hindu and Parsi Gujarati.

57

The tendency at present is for the two to separate
more widely. Hindu writers are becoming purists,
and drawing more and more upon the Sanskrit, even
for things which that language is not capable of
supplying. With their peculiar notions they look
down upon Parsi Gujarati, and blame the Parsis for
defiling their language with foreign mixture. It is
getting harder every day for the latter to understand
works written by Hindu scholars in their highly
Sanskritized Gujarati. The Parsis pursue their own
course, diluting the language freely with Persian and
English words and idioms, introducing foreign words
and constructions, which makes the purists stare and
gasp. Both communities are equally active in litera-
ture. Both conduct journals in their peculiar Gujarati,
write pamphlets, plays and poems. The breach is
thus widening. Already English missionaries to
Gujarat have seen the necessity of having the Bible
translated into both Hindu and Parsi Gujarati, in
order to appeal to both separately and effectively.

Malabari’s Niti-Vinod was written in Hindu
Gujarati. Though a Parsi, he has cultivated Hindu
Gujarati and its literature with rare success. Classical
Gujarati poets like Parmanand, Akha, Narsi Mehta,
Dayaram and others, he seems to have read with
some attention ; and the itinerant minstrels, as we
have seen, had a sensible influence on him in his early
Surat days. The ethical tone of his poetry springs, of
course, from his own intense moral earnestness. But
no small part of it could be traced to his acquaintance
with some of these poets and minstrels. The bards

58 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

and minstrels revelled in a bewildering variety of
metres, and their young admirer followed them closely
in this respect, as may be seen from numerous pieces
in this book, which gives a good idea of the metric
resources of the language.

From its peculiar character the Gujarati language is
very well adapted to singing; better, it is claimed,
than English. The various metres, if well handled,
have a pleasing lyrical effect. To be appreciated
properly, they must be sung. Many pieces in the
Nth- Vinod have already become popular songs
among Hindus of Gujarat, and the effect of the poet’s
high moral tone and lofty standard of life on the
people, must prove beneficial. Genuine poets among
them are very rare in these days. Not a few of their
best poets follow a questionable standard of ethics.
The advent of a poet, then, who combined the lyrical
excellence of the indigenous singers with the lofty
moral tone, partly inherited and partly acquired from
his intimacy with the best poetical literature of his own
people as well as of Europe, could not but be hailed
as a blessing. The poems were very favourably
received on almost all hands.

The unusual thing about them was that they were
liked by both Hindus and Parsis. The Parsis were
proud that one of themselves had successfully shown
to the Hindus that they too were able to wield their
language. Their newspapers praised the writer’s
skill in the use of the Sanskrit Gujarati' and its various
metres. One of the leading papers 'among these
recognized him as ‘the first genuine poet among the

Hindu and Parsi Gujarati.

59

Parsis,’ who had expressed his sentiments in pure
Gujarati and in sweet and beautiful verse. The
Hindus were surprised to find such a mastery over
their language as they found in the new volume, and
their first living poets hastened to welcome this new-
comer to their ranks. One of these expressed his
opinion that ‘ such wide acquaintance with Gujarati,
such beauty of versification, and such a delightful
combination of sentiment and imagination would do
honour to the pen of any accomplished Hindu poet.’
Another, who was considered the laureate of Gujarat,
and whose poems are the delight of every Hindu
household in the province, wrote, ‘ it is a general belief
amongst us that Parsis cannot excel in versification
through the medium of correct and idiomatic Gujarati ;
but Mr. Malabari s JV itz - V\ mod effectually dispels that
belief. An English critic regarded the book rightly
as an attempt to infuse into the Eastern mind some-
| tIim g °f the lofty tone of thought and feeling which
| distinguishes the most approved literary productions
j the West,’ and gave due praise to the author’s
‘wonderful command over the pure Hindu Gujarati.’

CHAPTER IV.

Marriage Female Education among Parsis and other classes

Indian Muse in English 6^- Wilson’s influence-A real missionary-

Influence o f Christianity on modern Indian thought— Zoroastrianism—
Wilson Virah .

VTth this volume, containing' the first-fruits of his
poetic genius, unequal and irregular though the verses
were, Malabari emerged from obscurity, and began to
be known beyond the small circle of his personal
friends. His means, too, were increasing. The
talented tutor was well spoken of on all sides, and
pupils flocked to him. He soon found himself in
a position to marry and become a family man. Of
his married life this only need be said here, that it has
been a happy one as regards mutual affection and
esteem, and that in the wife the husband has found
exactly what he himself lacks, namely, order and
economy. This he often gratefully acknowledges as
a gift from Providence. In the matter of marriage
the life of the educated Indian of to-day has many and
serious drawbacks. If he finds in his wife a loving
partner of his worldly fortunes, a good manager of his
domestic affairs and trainer of his children, he should
consider himself happy. It is all that an Indian wife
could be expected to prove herself. But if he seeks
for an intelligent companion, on anything like terms

Female Education.

61

of equality, with intellectual sympathy for his hopes
and aspirations, a helpmate in his affairs beyond those
of the household, he is in most cases doomed to dis-
appointment. His life is in this way seriously handi-
capped, as compared with that of the European, next
to whom stands the Parsi. As often as not, the Indian
wife, instead of being a helpmate in his pursuits, and
sympathizing with his aims and aspirations, is a
hindrance, a veritable thorn in his side, standing up
for obsolete and exploded superstitions, dragging her
partner down with her. The utmost that he can pray
for, in such a case, is apathy. It is not difficult to
explain the cause of this deplorable state of things.
Female education has been almost entirely neglected
in India up till quite recently. The aims of life and
conduct of the younger generation have been revolu-
tionized by the new learning to which they have been
introduced. Lofty ideals and high hopes, however
selfish these may be in some cases, are cherished as
a rule by our young men far above the level of former
generations. But the female mind has remained
almost entirely where it was, moving in the same
narrow grooves. Very little effort has been made
to get the new light to reach the women. Hence
English educated Indians have to rest content with
more or less ignorant and unsympathetic partners in
life. They are beginning to perceive the mischief ;
and an honest attempt is now being made to educate
Hindu girls to something at least approaching the
standard of the education of boys. But deep-rooted
prejudices have to be overcome. The dogma of the

62 India Forty Years o/Pro gress and Reform.

absolute Inferiority of woman in every respect to man
prevails m the country with irresistible force, and it
wi take long to weaken it so far as to allow the
despised female to have the same share of education
and the same sphere of action as the male.

The Parsis, the community to which Malabari
belongs, saw the necessity of educating their girls much
earlier than the Hindus and the Mahomedans, to whom
they may be said to have shown the way in this, as in
most other respects. Still, though the great proportion
of their young women are not so illiterate as amona
others, educated Parsi youths cannot be said to be
much better off in married life than their Hindu and
Mahomedan fellows. There are instances of what we
may call equal marriages, wherein the couples are well
mated with regard to intellectual sympathy. But in
the generality of cases, even among Parsis, the wife is
little more than a physical companion, sharing no more
of her husband’s aspirations than those of a stranger.
The life of the educated Indian is much to be pitied
on this account. Foreigners cannot conceive what
a drag such unions often are on our public men.
Great, therefore, must be the credit given to those who
rise superior to the difficulties of the situation, and
though not on the same level, compete as if on equal
terms with European workers and come so close to
them in the race of public usefulness. Malabari, as
we have seen, is happy in his married life, with’ an
affectionate wife and loving children. But in his case,
too, as m that of most public men of modern India, it
must be admitted that his family cannot be of much

Education of Malabari.

6 3

direct help to him in his public career by sharing and
lightening its burdens.

After his first failure to pass the matriculation
examination, Malabari did not give up hope, but per-
severed steadily for three successive years, and at
length succeeded in 1871 in passing that difficult test.
He overcame his aversion to arithmetic, the subject
that had stood cruelly in his way and rendered nugatory
the excellent results in English and other branches.
But he did not continue his studies after passing the
entrance test, and never entered college. This was
perhaps as well. Though he failed to receive what is
called an academic training, and has not the honour to
be a graduate of the University, he excels most of his
contemporaries with the best collegiate education at
their back, in literary ability, grace of diction, and
more especially, in originality. This last quality would
most likely have suffered if he had been put through

the treadmill of the University curriculum at present
in vogue.

The University has been fairly successful in pro-
ducing good professional men, lawyers, doctors,
engineers , and above all, in furnishing to Government
a useful and reliable body of subordinate officials in
the Civil Service, through whom the work of administra-
tion is in a great measure carried on. But its success
is doubtful as regards rearing up a body of really
cultured men, deep thinkers and great writers. Indian
Universities have existed for more than a generation,
and their roll of graduates is long. But among these will
be found very few who have made a deep mark on their

64 I. nclia : F orty Years of Progress and Reform.

times as writers, thinkers, or great characters. On the
contrary, such great forces are to be found outside
their pale : men like Keshub Chunder Sen in Bengal
and Malabari in Bombay owe little to academic educa-
tion. This failure, so far, of the Universities, upon
which high hopes were based by the Government and
the people, is now attracting a good deal of attention.
Too much thought cannot be given to the subject by

those who have the future welfare of the country at
heart.

The year after the publication of his Gujarati poems,
our author appeared in the more ambitious rdle of
a poet in the foreign English language. We have
seen how passionately he took to the study of some of
the English poets. With his poetical temperament
he entered into the very spirit of these masters, dis-
covered hidden affinities, and assimilated much that
vas best in them. Almost with the commencement
of his study of the English poets he took to composing
verses in English, and some of these he had written
already as a boy at Surat. Many of them seem to
have suggested themselves to him while reading his
favourite pieces on which they are modelled. The
command over the language, which they show, is truly
astonishing in a youth under twenty. These verses
he showed to his friend and benefactor, Dr. Wilson,
who thought that they displayed ‘an uncommonly
intimate knowledge of the English language ’ and were
‘the outcome of a gifted mind, trained to habits of
deep meditation and fresh and felicitous expression/
Meeting with such kindly encouragement, Malabari

‘Indian Muse in English Garb /

65

polished his early effusions, added new ones, and made
up the whole into a thin octavo volume of just
a hundred pages. It was given the appropriate title
of the Indian Muse in English Garb , and was dedi-
cated in a graceful letter to Miss Mary Carpenter,
a lady who had been working at great sacrifice,
steadily and long, for the cause which the poet was
himself soon to take up, that of the helpless women
of India.

Malabari was twenty-three when this thin little
volume appeared. It was his first appearance in
public in a most difficult foreign language, and argued
rare courage in challenging the judgement of the literary
world at the commencement of his career. Though '
some few Indians had attempted English verse before
him, yet this volume was perhaps the first of its kind
to arrest attention both in India and in England. The
newspapers on the whole welcomed our youthful poet
heartily. He received still more cordial encourage-
ment from some of the leading literary men of the time;
in England to whom copies had been sent. Tennyson ;
wrote to him to say 1 it is interesting, and more than
interesting, to se^ how well you have managed in the
English garb.’ He expressed a wish to be able to read
the poems Malabari had written in his own vernacular,
and signed himself 1 Your far-away but sincere friend.’
Lord Shaftesbury, John Bright, and other prominent
men also praised the sentiments and the style of the
verses.

Professor Max Muller, with whom the poet was
to come in closer contact later, and whom he has

66 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform .

impressed deeply enough to be reckoned among the
select circle of half a dozen of his intimate Indian
friends, showed great discrimination in the remark
that, it is m the verses where you feel and speak
like a true Indian that you seem to me to speak
most like a true poet. Being himself a foreigner to
the English language, who had succeeded in obtaining
a wonderful mastery over it, he could appreciate the
difficulties of the Indian aspirant to literary fame as
well as give him sound advice. i Xo me also/ wrote
he, English is an acquired language, but I have
never attempted more than English prose. However,
whether we write English verse or English prose, let
us never forget that the best service we can render is
to express our truest Indian or German thoughts in
English, and thus to act as honest interpreters between
nations that ought to understand each other much
better than they do at present. Depend upon it, the
English public, at least the better part of it, like a man
who is what he is. The very secret of the excellence
of English literature lies in the independence, the
originality, and truthfulness of English writers.’ Miss
Florence Nightingale also welcomed the Indian Muse
in an enthusiastic letter to the poet, which ended in
these inspiriting words : ‘ May God bless your labours!
May the Eternal Father bless India, bless England,
and bring us together as one family, doing each other
good ! May the fire of His love, the sunshine of His
countenance, inspire us all ! ’

The contents of the Indian Muse are miscellaneous,
many of them being occasional pieces suggested by

67

1 Indian Muse in English Garb/

men and events of the time in Western India, such as
the career of the then recently deposed Gaikwad of
Baroda, and the visit of the Prince of Wales to Bombay
in 1875. There are, also, some characteristic poems in
the volume ; the autobiographic sketch, from which we
have already quoted, belongs to this volume. The
death of his friend, Dr. Wilson — ‘ the friend of my
youth —forms the subject of a pathetic poem ‘ To the
memory of one of the noblest friends of India/ The
miseries of Hindu female life are vividly depicted in
the person of an orphan girl-widow who is made to
tell her own heartrending story. The lines on the
British character, and to the ‘ Disloyal Grumbler/
reveal his political views. His deep sympathy with
the people of India, his admiration for the work of the
English Government and his appreciation of their
sterling qualities, as also of the enormous difficulties of
the administration of a foreign country — views to which
he has clung in the main — have made him a force in
public affairs, an accredited interpreter between the
rulers and the ruled. Some lines from the address to
the Disloyal Grumbler ’ are well worth quoting at the
present day, as they strike the keynote, thus early, of

the politics of our patriot-poet and those who think
with him: —

e O mourn thou not in vain regrets
That fancied wrong thy peace alloys;

When thy ungrateful heart forgets
What bliss thy conquered race enjoys
What if thy English brother lords
It o’er thee, with contempt implied?

Recall the day when Moslem swords
Cut thee and thine in wanton pride !

F 2

68 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

Think how a gen’rous nation strives
To win thee back thy prestige lost;

Of what dear joys herself deprives,

To aid thee at a frightful cost/

••••••••

Then, after describing, in eloquent verse, the sacrifice
made by Britain for the cause of good government in
India, he proceeds : —

‘ When thoughts of this my senses crowd,

Good God ! my nerves are all unstrung •

Hot tears of shame my vision shroud,

Hot tears by grateful pity wrung.

And none, with common souls with mine,

But feels his patriot’s sense profaned
If, yielding to the morbid whine,

One prates of rights and powers restrained.

From motives interested apart,

As guardian of our peace and pride,

In every honest British heart,

I hail my brother, friend and guide !

And tho’ my heart, my head, my hand,

My country’s welfare holds in pawn,

Still more I owe to that brave land,

From which alone that welfare’s drawn.

The admirable good sense of these lines strikes one
more forcibly when he remembers that they were
penned by an Indian poet, hardly out of his teens.
Let us not forget, also, that the career of the full-grown
man has faithfully followed the note struck here in his
boyish days. Love and admiration of all that is best
in. English life and character is, indeed, the pervading
characteristic of the poetry as of the author’s mind and
heart. It is not indiscriminate rhapsody in which he
indulges. He has entered into the very spirit of
English thought and action, having penetrated the
outer crust which repels most Indian thinkers from

‘Indian Muse in English Garb I

69

them. His lines to the ‘ Genius of the Bard of Rydal’
show that Malabari could take a correct measure, even
at this early age, of the influence on England of one
of her greatest masters. The East is ever present to
his mind, and the West is drawn upon, as it were, to
make him understand the East the better. Words-
worth reminds him of the venerated founder of his
own religion : —

c To me, sweet Bard, thy page rare light dictates,

As on my soul thy magic verse vibrates.

Thy power seems, in every subtle shade,

A later offspring of sage Zoroaster’s head.

’Tween him and thee a common soul I trace
The same vast genius, but in time and place.

The same wise judgement in a modest word,

In one like line the same deep truth unheard.

The same life’s views, the same Heav’n-seeking aim,

The same your taste, your work and worth the same ;

Of each, with equal awe, I trembling sing —

Each mighty mind as Nature’s heir and king.’

By the time this first volume of English verse
appeared, Malabari’s guide, philosopher, and friend
was no more. Dr. Wilson closed his long career at
the end of 1875 amid unfeigned and universal sorrow.
He had dedicated his life to India, and spent it to the
very end in its service. To the last his interest in
public affairs, and still more in talented individuals
among the natives, remained most active. A very
short time before his death he was looking forward to
introducing the Prince of Wales, who was coming to
Bombay, to the antiquities and archaeological curiosities
of Western India, of which he was the most zealous
and laborious student then alive. But before that
opportunity, though so near, could come, Dr. Wilson

7o India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

was laid in his grave. The royal visitor felt his loss
as much as any of his personal friends. But the best
proof of the sterling worth of this man of God was
Uiat the native communities vied with the European
m honouring his memory. During his career as an

| | « * m o into collision with

all the native religions, and the controversies were

sometimes, as we have said was the case with the

h^dT P w nal and bltter ' Yet even the Parsis
had long before his death forgotten th^ w
infn wTiiVTi ^ tten anim °Slties

into which that very zeal, which they certainly admired

nd mutated, had betrayed their well-wisher, and joined ’

with their native fellow-citizens in mourning loss

o one who had been emphatically the friend of MZ

a l, and who even at the risk of alienating them had

S”h°i their “ “ « - his' own

come"' iTr 8 *T keenIy fdt;by those **0 ^
come m personal contact with him. Malabari we

have seen, came to know him only during the Zi w

years of his life. But durino- thi* I? , few
pnA , , ... -“ur miring this period he had seen

enough of him to love trust u , .

Dr • a ’ t tj d honour Imn entirely.

Ur. Wilson s influence on him must have been verv

great indeed. To a larg- e extent th* t , . y

soiritc: thr^rrU , , g ent the two were kindred

man had § u 1116 ° PP ° site P oIes of life. The old

based on h ^ v'"' 0 ' Private public ™ues,
cause Thev° ^ " SaCnfice ' and dicd a martyr to his

martyrs are t0 °' ™ S ° f the stnff of ™hich

with Wilson Th t l bUt ;\ WaS Pr0baMy his “bourse

Umsetf H v f d Um fot to ‘his for

He saw before him a living example of pure

Wilson s Influence .

V-

and saintly life, such as most of us know of only in the
pages of biography. This helped to determine his
character and the channel into which his life, should
run. To him was vouchsafed the grace to rise above
mere worldly considerations and to choose the better
part. It is not the privilege of many young men to
know in the flesh great moving forces like Dr. Wilson.
This was Malabari s good fortune, and he made the
most of it while it lasted. His own life presents a
close resemblance, in many respects, to the life that
may be considered his exemplar. Both show the
literary instinct very strong in them, and both have
shone as authors. In both of them the moral sense
predominates over everything else ; and prompts them
to feats of self-sacrifice. Their life has a fixed purpose,
the load-star of their course, and that is to do good to
their fellows. If Wilson was what is called a missionary,
Malabari is no less a missionary, though without that
name. He has a most definite mission, and pursues it
vigorously and without flinching. Even in his methods,
he is an enthusiastic missionary. He employs all the
means available in the present advanced age to further
his object, and combines them with other methods
prevalent in a former age. Like the enthusiastic
preachers of the Middle Ages in Europe, and of many
a later day in India and the East generally, he moves
about from place to place, leading his campaign, stirring
up his followers, organizing committees, winning over
opponents by personal example in forbearance and
self-sacrifice, and remonstrating with over- zealous
friends who would hurry on at too eager a pace and

72 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

thus endanger the cause. His peripatetic exertions on
behalf of social reform may well be compared to the
more famous and disastrously active efforts of that
ery hermit who flitted from court to court and nation
to nation, with his stirring story of the woes of his
e low-Chnstians m the home and land of the Bible
and never rested from fanning the animosities he had
created into a fierce flame which drew the whole of
Europe into its vortex and burned for several centuries
This old peripatetic method Malabari has improved
upon by the facilities afforded by railways and other
means of locomotion. He added to it, moreover, a
method that was unknown in former ages. The
newspaper press is a growth of recent years in India
and this our ‘ pilgrim reformer ’ has utilized with’
unique success to aid his unique campaign. His own
journal, pamphlets, leaflets, books, with every other
form of publicity, have also been laid under contribution

that Zld V? folWrs - Everything, in short,

that could help m the cause has been utilized. All

I deRnfr SUCh vf C ° meS ° nly t0 th0SC who h ^e

a definite mission in life and are entirely possessed by

LZ7 r , mCIP f Self - effac ~, on which Mala- ]

Chri tiaf ^ ^ S ° methin 2 Which —

Uiristian missionaries may envy.

have Jl 6 Sa ' d ' J he possessed *<= qualities which
have helped hnn to do all this, and become what he is

isons example had great influence upon him for the

exercise of these qualities for philanthropic purposes.

bM thT V I “ SpeCulate on P oss 'hUities,
much could be asserted, that without the

Wilson s Influence.

73

direct, though brief, contact he had with that noble
character, Malabari would not have been what he has
become.

In one respect only Wilson’s influence failed of its
purpose, at least directly, and in the way he wanted
it to act. That was in respect of the young Parsi’s
conversion to Christianity. Wilson was, above every-
thing, an apostle of the Gospel, and subordinated all
purposes to the main one of spreading it wherever
and whenever he could. It may, then, be asked, what
was the effect on Malabari of his efforts at conversion ?
So far as outward appearances of Christianity go, he
has not been converted. He has not been baptized.
He could not be prevailed upon, in spite of every
earnest effort, to accept the central dogmas of that
faith. The theological, dogmatic part of Christianity
he could not honestly accept. And it must have
called forth all his strength of mind to resist the effort,
so earnest and so persistent, of one who, he was con-
vinced, was working solely for his highest welfare;
Malabari’s main difficulty was the doctrine of media-
tion. He believed in salvation by faith and by work,
but did not think the mediation of another absolutely
necessary. In a note in the Indian Muse we learn
his views on the subject at this critical time, just after
Dr. Wilson’s death. ‘ It hardly seems to be in the
nature of things,’ says he, ‘ that Christianity can gain
on the subtle Indian intellect. As a race, we have
little impulse or emotion in a matter like this; and
thus what is readily accepted by the exquisitely-nerved
European, as the direct instance of revelation, with us

74 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

sinks into a burst of pure fanaticism. Faith, which
precedes and supersedes thought with the devout
Christian, and which has been, from time to time,
working magically on the most sublime intellects of
the West, seldom actuates the heart of the proud
Asiatic, who strives to purchase salvation with work
and never stoops to accept it as alms, as it assuredly
would be \i faith were to be his only merit. Still it
must be borne in mind, that all human work falls short
in this as in every other case.’ This shows that at
a very early age Malabari had pondered over the deep
metaphysical problems, not of Christianity alone but
of other religions likewise.

But though he could not accept the dogmas of
Christianity, he had imbibed all its true spirit, especially
as this was in full harmony with his own nature. If
true Christianity is to be found in the life led on this
earth by its Founder, and recorded by His loving
disciples, and if its dogmas are embodied in His great
Sermon on the Mount, then Malabari is a Christian ;
indeed, all truly good men are Christians. The spirit
of chanty, which prompted Him to advise His fol-
lowers to turn the left cheek to be kissed by him who
smites the right, and which He himself showed by
blessing His persecutors and murderers ; the spirit of
self-sacrifice and self-denial, of which His whole life
and every part of it was the most illustrious example ;
these Malabari imbibed naturally and without the
least hesitation, often with the greatest alacrity. If
Christianity imbues people with this its true spirit,
and makes them better men, charitable and self-for-

A Real Missionary.

75

getful, it must be said to have achieved its highest
practical aim.

This could hardly be done by wrangling over dis-
puted points in metaphysics and theology, by dialectical
ability shown in scoring a victory over our opponents,
or by mere theoretic preaching of charity and the
other virtues, and denouncing not only all the other
religions, but all other denominations than one’s own.
If that noble faith were to triumph by such methods,
the triumph would more than defeat its own purpose.
Christianity must triumph, not by taking its stand on
metaphysics and miracles, for Indian religions have
more subtle of the former and much more startling
and staggering of the latter, but by the example off
practical benevolence which it should inspire, by thel
pure self-sacrificing lives of its votaries and mission-}
aries. A single true Christian life, lived in the midst
of the Indian peoples, would have greater influence,
would incline them much more favourably towards the
faith, than any amount of preaching or controversy.
It may be added that even the small way which
Christianity has made in India has been chiefly owing
to the saintly lives led by some of its missionaries,
their institutions and their everyday work on behalf
of the people. The silent example of the life of Ward
or Carey, Martyn or Duff, George Bowen or John
Wilson, is more eloquent than the best pulpit elo-
quence, and has had greater influence than the most
convincing logic. On the other hand, nothing tends to
lower that noble faith in the eyes of the Indians so
much as the wranglings and bickerings among the

76 India : F orty Years of Progress and Reform.

various sects and churches, the lives of ease and
worldliness led by some of the ministers, who make
of their noble calling a mere profession and do little
to exalt it above the other professions.

Christianity has a bright future in India, though
the difficulties in its way are enormous. But a faith
that started from such humble beginnings, in an ob-
scure corner of Asia, underwent the most terrible
persecutions at the hands of one of the mightiest
, empires m the world, and succeeded at last in con-
quering its oppressors, in exterminating ancient faiths
and in overspreading the whole of Europe; a fe ith
that has overcome such difficulties and flourished for
nineteen centuries, triumphing over the extremes of
ignorance and science alike, need not find the obstacles
in its path in India insuperable. What we require are
the right methods and the right men. There is no
reason to doubt that men who stormed the stronghold
of ancient Paganism, like the early apostles, and their
successors, and the martyrs of the primitive Church,
will succeed in evangelizing the East.

However, even aimed Ion as .at present, .the effbrts 1
— --Sll s i^£aries__are not fruitless. If they fail to
win over the educated classes to the new faith, they
certainly succeed in shaking the foundations of the old I ,
faiths of the country. The work of destruction is^"
being done effectually; belief in the old religions is
giving way among the men who receive a European
training This may not be, perhaps, quite desirable,
as it is better to be, m the phrase of Wordsworth,
a Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,’ than to have no

V

Influence of Christianity in Modern India. 77

creed at all. The old creeds are found to be outworn
by them, but they have taken definitely to no new
creed. The ground for such a one, however, is being
cleared. What that creed is to be, is a matter for
speculation. That it will be Christianity in any dog-
matic form, one cannot hope. The present agnostic
tendency of European thought seems to have a fasci-
nation for the Indian intellect, and there are signs
here and there to show that atheism is spreading and
taking the place of the old superstitions. The writings
of agnostics and atheists are growing in favour with
our academic youths, who seem to consider all religion
as superstition, and every creed to be an anachronism.

This is the attitude, we fear, of a majority of
'young India.’ But some of the best among them
are endeavouring to profit by their acquaintance with
the learning and the faith of the West in quite a
different way. Knowing the real value of Christianity,
and regretting their inability to accept it in its entirety,
some of them have tried to engraft it on their own
religions, and bring about” fusion of the two.
The Brahmo Samaj of Keshub Chunder Sen is an

instance of this, and it is a pity that experiment has
not met with the support it deserves from the rising
generation. Others try to purge their ancient faiths'* .1
of all superstitious elements, which have settled upon i
them like a hard crust in the course of ages, and to
hold fast to the simple original elements of truth and
virtue which they contain. The influence of Western
education and faith on Malabari seems to have been
of this latter kind. Born and bred a Zoroastrian, he

78 India ; Forty Years ofPr ogress and Reform.

has become,, owing to his having come so very close
to Christianity, a better and purer Zoroastrian. The
new. faith enabled him to see many of its noble
qualities reflected in his own ancient religion. Chris-
tianity must have the credit of this, and Malabari
allows it in a liberal measure.

^?£2 a stnanism, the religion of the Parsis, is one of
t e most ancient and venerable faiths of the world,
and has played a very useful part in the history of
Oriental civilization. Founded in a remote age the
antiquity of which is variously placed between the
sixth and sixteenth centuries before Christ, by a sage
w ose insight and foresight were the wonder of the
ancient world, that faith influenced an important
ranch of the great Aryan race, and became the
tate religion of four great Oriental monarchies. On
one occasion it stepped beyond Asia, under Xerxes
and had. the battle of Marathon been otherwise
ecided, it would have, overspread the continent of

r°p e - ^hl^imitiYg._fqrm^ it _was a very simple
an pure creed, based on the celebrated formula of good 1
t oughts, good words, and good deeds on the moral I
side, and on the metaphysical, on the eternal strife
wagmg. throughout the Universe between good and j
evil, but this pure essence has been defiled in its
march through the ages by popular ignorance and priest-
craft. The sacred writings of Zoroaster were mostly
lost, and their place was taken by the inferior writings
Of later priests, who reduced the primitive faith mofe
or less to a sacerdotal system, with dogmas and rites
esigned to give importance to their own class. These

Zoroastrianism.

79

later books have come to be called sacred, and are
followed by the ignorant masses. Whilst the very few
original texts that survive, that is, the Gathas, point
to a sublime nature-worship, and inculcate morality
without any complex theological system whatever, the
later Avesta books, and still later Pahlavi writings and
commentaiies, have introduced precepts and notions

foreign to the essence of the religion, and have thus
helped it to degenerate.

Malabari very early saw this degeneration, and his
education and Christian influences sent him back to
the primitive Zoroastrianism of which he saw around
him only a travesty. That primitive faith, he found,
could satisfy the aspirations of his soul as far as these
could ever be satisfied in this life, and he has cherished
it as his most precious possession. This, as we have
said, he owes to Christianity, and is grateful for it.
In characteristic terms he acknowledges his debt to
the religion of Christ: ‘At a time when doubt and
distrust are taking the place of reason and inquiry
among the younger generation of India, I feel bound
to acknowledge in my own person the benefits I have
derived from a contact with the spirit of Christianity.
But for that holy contact I could scarcely have grown
into the staunch and sincere Zoroastrian that I am,
with a keen appreciation of all that appeals readily to
the intelligence, and a reverent curiosity for what
appeals to the heart, that much of what is mysterious
to man is not beneath, but beyond, the comprehension
of a finite being.’ This has been his attitude towards
Christianity throughout his career, and his remarks in

80 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

his latest work on English life and character in its

own home, are inspired by the same lively sense of

gratitude and admiration, and the same openness to
conviction.

Dr. Wilson, then, failed to make him a Christian,
but he succeeded in making him a better man, inspired
by all that is good and true in the Christian faith

superadded to that in his own. And if the venerable
missionary had lived longer, he would certainly have
been proud of the moral and religious development
of his protdge. Malabari is himself surprised how
he resisted Wilsons attempts at conversion. His
bosom friend, Dr. Bhabha, yielded, became a staunch
Christian, and persevered in his new faith in spite of
bitter persecution by relatives and friends, and has
given himself up to Christian work. Malabari says,
in one place, If anything could have made me a
Christian, it was this friend’s example.’ Perhaps it
was better, his countrymen might reply, that he could
not profess Christianity. In that case he would
naturally have failed to command the influence he

now wields whilst remaining in his community as one
of them.

It may be added here that Malabari himself partly
agrees with and partly differs from our views as to
the effect of Dr. Wilson’s proselytizing zeal. Talking
to the present writer in the course of a quiet evening
stroll, he once observed that Dr. Wilson appeared to
him to have opened his campaign too early. The Parsis,
as a community, were not prepared to receive his
message. This preparedness, what is called Tauskdr

' Wilson Virah. J

8r

by philosophers, is essential. The soil of the soul must
be prepared for the reception of the seed of spiritual
life, he continued. But a soldier of God, like Wilson,
burning with zeal, could not wait. Natures like his
cannot brook delay, cannot sit down to calculate. As
regards religion, Malabari went on to say, it is more
or less a matter of heredity, temperament, surrounding,
and of experience. It works differently in different ages,
and on different men. Even on the same man it works
differently at different stages of his life. ‘ I know not,’
he wound up, with that far-off gaze of his pathetic
eyes, in which faith seems to be constantly struggling
for mastery over doubt, ‘ if India will become Chris-
tian, and when. But this much I know, that the life
and work of Christ must tell in the end. After all,
He is no stranger to us Easterns. How much of our
own He brings back to us, refined and modernized !
His European followers seek Him most for His divine
attributes. To me Jesus is most divine in His human
element. He is so human, so like ourselves, that it
will not be difficult to understand Him, though it is
doubtful if the dogmas preached in His name will
acquire a firm hold on the East.’

Malabari deplored the loss of his friend in a volume
unique in the annals of vernacular literature. He wrote
a senes of elegiac lyrics in the same Gujarati as his
first volume, in which he gave vent to his grief. He
recounted, in beautiful verse, the main events in the
life of the great philanthropist, and held up for the
rst tlme before his countrymen the portrait of a
devout Christian who had given up his country and

G

82 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform .

sacrificed brilliant worldly prospects for the good of
the people in a distant land, inspired by no other
motive but that of serving God. The influence of
such a book cannot fail to be wide and lasting. Wilson
Virah, as it was named, was recognized by critics as
a remarkable work, likely to take a permanent place
. in literature. It is a collection of lyrics, skilfully
pieced together something like the In Memoriam of
Tennyson, but neither so sustained in interest nor so
; philosophical. It comes nearer to the two greatest
! purely elegiac poems in English literature, the Lycidas
of Milton and the Thyrsis of Matthew Arnold, though
it is not pastoral in form like these. But the love and
admiration for their friends, and the keen sense of loss
which breathe through them, are present in the same
intense degree, and find vent, in equally poetic terms,
in . the Indian poem. As a literary effort, Wilson \
Vtrak marks a distinct improvement on the Niti-
Vinod, with fewer indications of immaturity and
straining after effect. This poem was published three
yeais after the death of its hero, in 1878, and the
author’s position was by that time fairly well assured.

CHAPTER V.

Journalism m India —The Indian Sfrdaior—New Political Activity,
unrest and dissatisfaction— Criticism of Government.

Before this elegy was published, and a little after
Dr. Wilson s death, an important event occurred, which
finally determined Malabari’s worldly career. He
entered the ranks of journalism, which he has never
since^ left, though often longing to do so. With
English education and ideas, it was natural that this
most characteristic of English institutions should be
introduced into India among the natives. The first
newspaper in the country was stafted more than a
century ago in Calcutta, by an Englishman, and for
a long time the press was in the hands of English
writers alone, who were unconnected with the official
class, and who distinguished themselves by freely
criticizing the policy of the Government. The latter,
however, rightly thought that the country was not yet
ripe for a free and unlicensed press, which would be a
source of serious anxiety and trouble to the rulers. Some
journalists, like the famous Silk Buckingham, who had
come from England with notions of liberty unsuited
to the country, and who persisted in subjecting the
British administration in India to unsparing criticisms

G 2

84 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

of all its acts, had to be severely dealt with, and to
be sent back to the country better fitted for the
reception of liberal ideas. Experienced Anglo-Indian
officials, like Elphinstone and Malcolm, who had spent
their lives in India, were strongly opposed to allowing
the press to criticize the Government at all.

After a time, however, when the British Govern-
ment seemed to be firmly established and well able
to bear, without serious damage, the light of searching
hostile criticism, the press was made free at the
instance of that enthusiastic lover of liberty. Lord
Macaulay, to whom India, and especially the English-
educated Indians, owe lasting gratitude. Even before
the liberty of the press was granted, by which a great
stimulus was given to public journalism in this country,
vernacular papers were started by educated natives'
who conducted them, of course, in a tentative, timid
manner. . The first vernacular paper came into existence,
nearly eighty years ago, in Bombay, which has thus
had^ the honour of showing the way to the rest of
India. It was edited and printed by a Parsi, and this
race has ever since been prominently connected with
Indian journalism. With the progress of education
among the natives, newspapers began to multiply.
The greatest impetus to the press has, however, been
given to it only of late, by the manifestation of political
activity among the English-educated Indians, which is
the most notable feature of public life to-day.

The vernacular press has been the growth of English
education in India, and is the main channel of its
political activity, the outcome of this education. This

Journalism in India.

85

newly-educated class give vent to their political
aspirations through their journals, which are now to be
found in every city and town of the various provinces.
The newspaper press has a strong fascination for
young men in every country. The youth of India
found in it the charm of novelty, as no such thing
formerly existed among them. It was almost inevit-
able, then, that a young man of the ability and literary
talents of Malabari should turn to journalism for a
profession, and an opportunity soon offered itself.
Some enterprising friends, hardly having finished their
school career, had the pluck to start a weekly paper,
partly political and partly literary and social. They
had very simple notions about financing the venture.
Confident of their ability to supply good reading, they
felt equally sanguine about having plenty of sub-
scribers. One of them seems to have been a sort of
business man, as he was a clerk in the service of the
municipality. He undertook to find a fair supply of
advertisements. Thus, with a very small capital, and
with very large expectations, they began to publish,
every Sunday morning, a paper somewhat the size of
the London Spectator, and named after it. This was
the beginning of the now famous Indian Spectator,
which, from such a humble origin, rose to occupy a
prominent place in Indian journalism and to become
a force in public affairs.

The new paper, like its analogue of London, did
not record the events of the week so much as comment
on them. And like it, too, it made a distinct feature
of essays on social and literary subjects. Malabari

86 India: Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

was, some time after the start, invited to contribute by
the enthusiasts, one of whom, Mr. Ferozesha Pestonji
Taleyarkhan, was his intimate school friend, and of
whose literary talents he still cherishes a high opinion.
This friend, who was the editor in charge, contributed
the political notes and articles. Malabari took up the
lighter section, and sent in essays on social topics,
conceived in his peculiar vein.

The paper was conducted on thoroughly inde-
pendent lines, free from all party obligations. Its
criticisms of all parties alike were trenchant, as
coming from young men with great daring and little
experience. With characteristic boldness it attacked
some of the older heads of the native community, who
had rendered good service in the past, but who had,
in course of time, grown dogmatic and were losing
touch with the new generation. Some of these veteran
leaders were known for their unflinching opposition
to Government, and constant and uncompromising
criticism of all its acts. The Indian Spectator would
have little to do with such public critics and their line
of conduct. But these were gentlemen of established
position and influence, who could not be either easily
or safely opposed. The young men lacked prudence,
though they possessed enough, perhaps more than
enough, of courage and dash. Their little weekly was
sought to be discredited by its influential opponents,
and a dead set was made against it in some quarters.
The subscription list, never long, dwindled away. The
advertisements, so sanguinely expected, and which,
even more than subscriptions, are the outcome of

The 1 Indian Spectator /

87

influence and connexions, the very thing our young
enthusiasts not only lacked but had arrayed against
them, never came. Prospects became gloomier still
after a few months. A more serious mishap threatened,
and finally wrecked, the spirited venture. The partner,
who had put in his small capital in the concern, was by
this time disenchanted. He grew importunate in his
demands. But the money could not be found. The
partners quarrelled and separated. The whole concern
was sold off for a nominal sum to a Borah, and the
Indian Spectator was thus found breathing its last,
after a more or less stormy existence.

But though doomed to death, it was fated not to die.
The Borah bethought himself that with other things
he had also bought the name and goodwill of the
paper that had, to all intents and purposes, ended so
disastrously; and, with the shrewd business instincts of
his race, he wanted to turn this to account. From
some source he had heard of the juvenile contributor
with literary tendencies, whom he now sought out and
made an offer of the goodwill for the trifling sum of
Rs. 25. Malabari had no thought whatever of owning
a paper, much less of conducting it. But when an old
friend like the Spectator came seeking him in such
a stress, he could not help yielding. Possibly, too,
his mind conjured up vistas of public usefulness and
importance as editor. Anyhow, he bought the Spec-
tator in a singularly auspicious moment. He had
known, however, of its struggles under his friends who
had zeal and ability, but very little of funds, and
endeavoured, if possible, to avoid a repetition of such

hardships to himself. He thought himself lucky
therefore m having secured a capitalist partner, who
was ready to advance the money requisite for pub-
lishing the new paper, and who is believed to have
sent the Borah to the guileless Parsi publicist This
acute Hindu gentleman seized the opportunity of
utilizing the paper and the editor’s talents, partly for
his own purposes and partly in the interests of the
public. . He advanced the printing charges for a month
promising further a regular supply, i n the hope that the
paper would become practically his own organ. But
he had mistaken his man. The moment our careen
young journalist saw that he was expected to wrfte at
the instance of his capitalist partner, he resolved he
would have nothing to do with him. He paid off the

debt incurred, with the help of his devoted wife, and
became independent again.

Before he thus took up the new paper, Malabari
had already served his apprenticeship as journalist
under a veteran of the craft, Mr. Martin Wood. We
lave seen that he had been introduced to this gentle-
. man by Sir Cowasji Jehangier, and was soon utilized
y him Mr. Wood, who had been for a long time
editor of the Times of India, was then starting a paper
°f his own, named the Bombay Review, in which he
wanted to advocate specially the cause of the Native
jotates and the native population of Bombay. He

• ? t e y° un £ Parsi his coadjutor, who continued for

nearly two years to write for the Review. But the new

wee y, m spite of its editor’s ability and influence,
could not get on financially. It had to be discontinued

The ‘ Indian Spectator P

89

z-after a brief but eminently useful career. This con-
nexion, however brief, was beneficial to Malabari, as it
gave him the first training under an experienced hand.
It, moreover, enabled him to knock off many of those
charming sketches of life and character in Gujarat,

| which were later collected and published in London.
This volume, Gujarat and the Gujaratis , was the first
i to raise Malabari to the ranks of English authorship.

d he Bombay Review came to a premature end
soon after the Spectator was revived by Malabari.
Mr. Martin Wood spoke of the new editor in very
favourable terms, which show that he had already
discerned the rare qualities which have made both the
journal and its conductor so deservedly famous. The
retiring veteran wrote: ‘The editor is peculiarly
fitted for being a trustworthy interpreter between
rulers and ruled, between the indigenous and immi-
grant branches of the great Aryan race. It is easy to
see that he thoroughly understands the mental and
moral characteristics of these two great divisions of the
Indian community, not only as presented in Bombay,
but in other provinces in India. We have always felt
confidence in the sincerity and independence of its
editor. His knowledge of the various castes and
classes of society in Western India is full and exact,
while in aptitude for discussion of social questions he
displays a discrimination and aptness in picturesque
description, and a genuine humour, sufficiently rare.’

After this separation from his respected guide and
friend, Malabari had to undergo a severe trial. Of
money he had little, and a wife and children had to be

90 India : F orty Years of Progress and Reform.

supported. His earnings were fair enough for his
purposes, but he was careless in money matters, and
much of his income was lost to the family owing to
his easy good-nature and want of business capacity.
Unworthy friends took advantage of this weakness in
his character. He helped these men recklessly; and
even stood security for some of their debts, which he
had ultimately to make good. Thus he became twice
involved in pecuniary difficulties, which were intensified
by the struggles of the Indian Spectator. The strain
of the new venture was severe indeed : — ‘ I struggled
on, says he, ‘ writing, editing, correcting proofs, at
times folding and posting copies, and even distributing
them in town, going the round in a cab, with the
driver delivering the copies as instructed by me.’
Such were the struggles through which he has worked
his way up to success.

Through all his bitter experiences Malabari has
come to believe in the wise saying of Burke, that
difficulty is good for man. He is truly himself in the
face of difficulties whose magnitude draws out his very
best qualities. He is not born to be daunted by
obstacles a fact which he has proved abundantly, and
more than once, during his career. In his early
struggles with poverty, in this commencement of his
journalistic career, and later in his campaign against
infant marriages and enforced widowhood — which may
well be considered the crowning piece of his life-work —
he has shown that he possesses unflinching courage,
resolution, and perseverance. This trait of character
it may surprise many to find combined with the poetic

9i

New Political Activity.

temperament and a nature so intensely sensitive as
his. It is rare, indeed, to find a genuine poet like
Malabari engage in active public work, so varied and
exacting in its nature. But his poetry seems to have
inspired him to do practical good to his fellows bv
every means in his power ; Duty and Action are its
key-notes. In his latest volume of Gujarati verse he
has a beautiful poem on Duty, which reveals his own
springs of inspiration and embodies his gospel of work.

4 Du ^ 1S dey otion : duty is salvation : duty is our final
rest in heaven. This is the burden of his song, which,
for moral earnestness and lofty sentiment, comes well
up to Wordsworth’s famous ode.

He rose superior to all obstacles, and by dint of
patient hard work, and with such help as he could
obtain, succeeded in firmly establishing his paper.
The time when he started on his career as a journalist
was favourable for success to rising talent in India.
It was the commencement of the viceroyalty of Lord
Ripon, who was sent by Mr. Gladstone, on his coming
to power in 1880, to reverse the imperialist policy
which Lord Lytton had launched upon, and which had
proved so disastrous both to the prestige and finances
of India. This aggressive policy on the north-west
frontier, which partly gave rise to a repressive policy
within the country, could not be approved by Indian
journalists, who denounced it in terms not always well
measured nor sober. The Conservative Government,
not relishing the persistent criticism to which its policy
was subjected, and being alarmed at the tone of the
native press, which it found ‘ seditious,’ curtailed the

~ India : For ‘y Years 0/ Progress an d Reform.

hot haste, and thus aimed a hW uv P
The political discontent caused by if V '
financial disasters in Afghanistan, and the^oerfon of

the native press, were further aggravated be the h ■ i

calamity of a famine which ra"d over th j P

carried off several millions ofthe pop
was with feelings of intense relief that the / rT
Beaconsfield Ministry was hi efby ht t d

Mr. Gladstone had shown his distrust I't"*

predecessor c r distrust of h is brilliant

Em oir e r tr 7 ° f man ^ in ^ the afikira of the
Empire m Europe and Asia, and had sent out m

n ia a man totally different from Lord Lytton in
opinion and temperament. ^

Lord Ripon, the new Viceroy, set about the task of

= g the mischief done by his predecest in
oreign _ as well as domestic affairs. The policy of

aggression and interference on the north-wesf frontier
was abandoned Afo-W.v*. irontier

With Russia » , eh j11 was eva cuated. Collision
m Russia was shunned, and a conciliatory attitude

was assumed towards that countrv TK c

India left in ,r] 0 , country. The finances of

and h 1 a v ged edition, with a heavy deficit

the w d y * y miIli ° nS ° f additional d eM by
? e late administration, were rapidly put on a sound
basis ap-am undor ~ y ^ un a s °und

minister siv F i the | uldance ° f a " able and skilful
minister, Sir Evelyn Baring, now Lord Cromer who

usance done similar service to the finances of Egypt
nolio * e r St marked de P artu « from die former

pohcy was the attitude of the new Government Tnd

repression toWardS 46 natives ' Instead ° f

press, on and coercion, the latter met with encourage-

New Political Activity.

93

ment and help. Public criticism was invited ; public
opinion welcomed. Public leaders were recognized
and consulted. The native press was given back its
recently lost liberty ; and its opinions, however crude
were carefully considered. The educated natives in
every province, struck with the sympathetic tendency
of the new Government, began to take a considerably
enhanced interest m public affairs. They received an
unprecedented impetus in politics, and were almost
entirely engrossed by them. Political activity, never

before heard of in the cn.mtn- „c „ u i J .„

. m tne country as a whole, manifested

tself everywhere in an unmistakable manner. New

aTof ZTs we - e formed ’ old ones revived ’ and the

art of agitation introduced with almost all its Western

recame e comm MOnS Th “w” 8 ® ^ m ° nSter P etitions

came common. The platform became an institution,
e pamphlet and the placard were put to novel uses.

the 11 T $ r d r aSp ‘ rations were thus raised among

small band of educated Indians, who forthwith

prepared to put into practice the liberal notions they

Ene-hsh G f m SCh °° IS and C ° 1Ieges under

Engh h professors. Whether these hopes will ever

be fully realized, whether the erln^-,*- a

safplv i ■ ’ , Cr tile educated minority could

safe y be given all that they want from their rulers-
w ether they represent really the whole of the various’
nations of the Indian continent; and whether these

T am * thC P ° int Where ‘ he y could be
given a measure of active self-government which is
demanded for them and in i

need hardlv h<- A' , , names — these questions

h^ve b " T USS re ' But that Such hop es

have been created ; that the educated classes are

94 Indict : F orty Years of Progress and Reform .

— Jjecoig^ p resent state of things ;

that there is a strong and a strange ferment working
in certain ranks of Indian society, making for unrest
and change; that instead of looking upon the English
rulers as their real benefactors, they are beginning to
view their actions suspiciously, seizing every oppor-
tunity of criticizing and censuring, and, in some cases,
of lowering the prestige of their rulers ; that the race-
feeling between the rulers and the ruled, instead of
diminishing, has increased with the increase, and
spread, so to say, with the spread of literary education
among our young men ; that all this is more or less true
at present, cannot be denied by an impartial pojitical
observer. On the contrary, it must be mournfully ad-
mitted by every person who has the good of the Empire
at heart, that'the signs are getting worse, that needless
ac er bity is shown on both sides, and that influential
mediatois are sadly wanting to heal wounds which
are not allowed to close. St monumentum quaeris ,
circumspice. Everywhere and all around proofs of this
abound. In schools and colleges and universities, in
debating clubs and associations ; in literature, spoken
and written ; in newspapers and pamphlets, plays and
novels , in public life, in municipalities and legislative
councils; in private life, in after dinner talk and
friendly converse ; in short, in all departments of life,
this new tendency, this mental unrest and dissatisfaction
with the present order, is the one thing conspicuous,
almost aggressive. Why this should be so, why the
class which owes its very existence to the British rule,
and from which additional stability was expected to be

New Political Activity.

given to it, should seem to be uncompromisingly
opposed to it, should seem to try to belittle the good
done by it ; why the official class of Englishmen should
be treated, not as friends of the country and the people,
whom they serve amid great difficulties and at great
sacrifice; why the official class appear to be less in
touch with the people than before, and less able to
distinguish between opponents and enemies, between
critics of their own acts and detractors of the Govern-
ment, is an inquiry of the most vital importance for
one competent enough to enter upon it.

The Indian press received its greatest stimulus from
this rush of political activity. In fact, from the vice-
royalty of Lord Ripon may be dated its second birth.
As we have seen, it existed long before this period •
but its voice was feeble, and its influence but small’
owing to its limited constituency. In the new state
of things the press was the first instrument to be
handled by the politic! party. New papers wert
started, both in the vernaculars and in the English
anguage; old papers that were drooping had & new
spirit infused into them. The spirit of organization
was abroad, for the first time, and pervaded the native
press.. Its voice became stronger, because united, and
spoke out in no faltering tone. Its circulation in-
creased rapidly, and its influence spread over a much
wider circle than before. Enjoying the fullest amount
ot liberty, the papers wrote with a straightforwardness
ic was surprising, and at times alarming, when
compared with their former mode. Viewino- every
question that arose for discussion from their own point

of view, they criticized the action of the Government

oTrlf r. °! y ; 51,11 m ° re ‘ hey criticized 4e action
the officials of the Government, over whom they

kept a strict watch. This liberty, newly acquired, and

the possession of power and influence, suddenly felt,

have led to their abuse in many cases. Interested

opposition to Government, and captious and unfair

criticism of the whole official class, have become the

distinguishing marks of a certain section of the native

press, which is mainly responsible for the breach be-
tween the races now widening.

Such, then, was the time when the Indian Spectator
en ered upon a new lease of life. It could not but be
avoidable to both the journal and the journalist. Men
of talent saw a career opening for them in politics,
i er in the press or on the platform. And many of
e leading native politicians of to-day came to the
front m the early eighties, borne on the new wave of
p ° itical activity. Malabari participated in this activity
and this enthusiasm ; but he guided himself by prin-
ciples of his Own, OCCUDvincr a „ m ' n • • ^

, . rii . Py & a unique position among

his fellow-workers m the same field. From the very

rst he took a higher view of his profession than most
na ive journalists. He determined not to be an ad-

H y °” e T ty ° r in politics - but "> fc e

■if He conducted his paper in an eminently
J dicial spirit, bearing in mind what is due to all sides ;

L" Truffit He W ! S /™ ly imPreSSed w!th 46
hat Truth ,s many-sided, and he tried to see as many

sides of it as possible. In short, he has throughout

been a firm supporter of the jus. and lawful claims o

The ‘ Indian Spectator •/

97

the people, and the educated classes, wielding his pen
mainly towards the redress of their grievances. With
the people especially he has shown the warmest
sympathy, ever using his opportunities to better their
condition. Their actual condition at present under
the British rule, whether they have really benefited by
it, and how the benefit can best be made to reach the
lowest classes — these questions have been his special
study, for which his intimate knowledge of the country,
and his natural inclination for espousing the cause of
the weak, have well fitted him. This line of inquiry
has taken him to the very root of the problem of the
British rule in India and how it affects the people.
He has studied the dark side of the rule as well as the
bright, and judiciously endeavoured to throw light on
the former, as well as to hold up the latter to the ap-
preciation of his less discerning countrymen. This is
not difficult for one to whom ‘journalism is not a trade,
not a business, not even a mere profession, but an
avocation, a call, a holy mission.’ It is in this spirit
that Malabari has worked his Spectator, and it is for
this reason, mainly, that he has come to be recognized
as the prince of Indian publicists. We shall quote
one authority here to bear us out— an Englishman
whom the advanced politicians of India are proud to
reckon as their leader. This gentleman, writing to
a friend about the Indian Spectator and its editor
observes Lord Ripon did not hesitate to number
him amongst his friends, and considered his paper the
best and wisest of all the papers edited by natives
Moderation and good sense have been the leading

H

98 India: Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

characteristics of the Spectator , which, though it has
ever consistently supported native interests, has never
laid itself out for popular applause, or played the dema-
gogic game ... It plays a most important part in the
national development.’

As a journalist, he has rendered invaluable service
to India by his championship of her cause. He has
never stooped to conciliate popular whims and preju-
dices, as many others have done, to the detriment of
public morality and independence. Nor has he had
anything to do with that carping criticism of the
official class, and rank abuse of Englishmen, which
have been the characteristics of the majority of irre-
sponsible writers during the last decade. Malabari’s
innate sense of justice and charity has always guided
him in his journalistic career, and made it the con-
spicuous success that it has been. During times of
wild excitement and heated controversy he has kept
his . head cool, often ■ trying successfully to calm the
public mind and lead it to wise conclusions. Perhaps
the most notable instance of this was Malabari’s
service on a critical occasion, during the agitation
which is known as the Ilbert Bill Controversy. The
compromise, by which the bitter differences that had
arisen between the native and the European com-
munities in India were sought to be made up, was,
as first imperfectly announced, on the point of being
violently criticized and rejected by the native press
and the public on this side, as it had already been
condemned in Bengal and elsewhere ; and the Govern-
ment was on the point of being placed in an unenviable

New Political Activity.

99

position. But Malabari, besought by the authorities
to suspend judgement till further information was sup-
plied, exerted his influence with the Press and the
representatives of public opinion generally to think
better of it.

On such critical occasions the Indian Spectator has
filled a distinct place in contemporary politics. The
foremost public men in India and England have recog-
nized its services, speaking in high terms of its policy
and methods. What Lord Cromer wrote, when
Finance Minister in India, strikes the keynote of its
excellence. ‘ I always read your paper with interest
for two reasons, first, because it represents the interests
of the poorer classes ; secondly, because it is opposed
to class and race antagonism. The last point is
especially important in this country.’ Yes, this last
point is really of exceptional importance in India, where
class and race antagonism is becoming more intense,
where some of the various races which inhabit our
continent hate one another with a hatred that is made
explicable only by their antecedents, and which of late
years has occasionally shown itself in violent outbursts.
The hatred, for instance, between the two great
races, the Hindu and the Mahomedan, has affected
the impartiality of a portion of the native press, which
deals in mutual recriminations and aspersions. Many
of the papers being in the hands of the landed and
moneyed classes, the interests of the poor ryots are
but scantily looked after by them, and on occasions
when they collide directly with their own, no scruple
is felt in sacrificing them. This was clearly seen at

H 2

ioo India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

the passing of the Bengal Tenancy Bill, which, though
it tried to remove the causes of misunderstanding
between the tenant and the landlord, was bitterly
opposed by the native papers in the interests of the
zamindars or landlords. The same papers, which had
only a little while before praised Lord Ripon to the
skies, decried him for this his last and perhaps justest
piece of legislation. Such inconsistency is not to be
wondered at.

Of the Indian Spectator, however, it may be honestly
said that it has never viewed any public question from
the point of view of class or race. If ever it has been
compelled to do so, it has taken the side of the poorer
class and the weaker race. Justice and moderation
have been the cardinal points of its policy and the
secret of its success and influence. When occasion
required, it has never feared to speak out and condemn
injustice, from whatever quarter proceeding. It has
been the staunchest supporter of the ruling race. But
when the rulers have been found to err, in its opinion,
it has always exposed the error and raised its voice in
favour of amending it. The British Government, like
all Governments, must have its faults— faults of policy
an d faults of individual officers. And the Spectator
has always been on the alert to bring these to the
notice of the Government, who acknowledge the great
utility of such criticism. An official, here and there,
who has been exposed for bullying or harassing the
people under his charge, may have become a personal
enemy of the critic. But, on the whole, the ruling class
appreciates the immense importance of the kind of

Criticism of Government.

IOI

criticism of its policy and acts which papers like the
Spectator , and men like Malabari, offer to its notice.
The British Government is a foreign government in
India, and apt, like all such, to be unsympathetic,
owing to the unsympathetic nature of the British, but
much more to want of touch with the masses and lack
of knowledge of their ways and wants. Legislative
measures, initiated with the best intentions by the
rulers, are likely to be misunderstood, and in the end
generally miscarry, to their great surprise. Many a
benevolent act of the English has been misconstrued
by the ignorant masses, and felt by them as quite the
reverse, simply because the rulers cannot enter into
the state of feelings and ideas of the ruled. They
thus need, in a peculiar manner, the aid of well-trained
and well-meaning native critics, to act as mediators and
interpreters, who, while they try to convince the ruled
of the good intentions of the rulers, also bring to the
notice of these latter the prejudices and peculiar
notions of the former, which it would be unstatesman-
like to ignore. The class of such natural mediators is,
unfortunately, very small, and Malabari, with his
Spectator, may be said to be its best type and repre-
sentative. Being an Indian of the Indians, and know-
ing the ways and habits of his countrymen intimately,
and feeling for their welfare as few others could feel,
he employs his advantages chiefly in helping the
foreign Government in their task of governing them.

Perhaps the most valuable of Malabari’s services to
India, as journalist, may be traced to his private
correspondence with the higher officials of Government

io2 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

and the authorities in England. Many are the men

whose Conservative prejudice he has overcome by

gentle remonstrance ; whom he has sometimes won

over to the fold of Liberalism so far as Indian politics

are concerned. The effect of one such conversion

could hardly be over-estimated. But it is too early

yet to estimate the value of this side of Malabari's
political activity.

in tlact Wach P a en w 0 L 0r * he

acknowledging, publSlV anTt ^ X w ^ tireS of

written largely at the time for the Indian sZciafZZnd t0 ^

useful, helped to keep its finances going. The Siect^Z Wa * m ° re
dependent to make two ends meet— a merit or / • r r ^ as t0 ° m "
clung to it all through its career. And Mr Wanh^ wit^h'^
sympathy and knowledge of men and affairs seems to h d q

that such an organ of genuine public opinion kould not dZ Helnd
two Parsi friends, Messrs. J. R. Modv and T N Tab * *- Hemduced

proprietor against his losses for a yelr each’ Mr Mod f L 7 **

modated the struggling journalist with a L

‘This marked,’ says Malabari *» tm ? 7 ° ff the arrears -

journalist.’ Among other friends MaJ^* 111 ! “ ® y Career aS a

Mr. Hume, Mr. DadabhaTLoro^Mr ll enthasia ^-ally of

burn. ‘ I could write a volu3 £ L ‘ T Fram J I ’ and Sir W. Wedder-

his friendly, brotherly fatherly int !’ . ab ° Ut CaCh of fnends-about
y, Luuuieny, tattierly interest m one who differs from t,™ „

bum fstie Tly Enghshman from^h ^ TT ^ W Sir ' W ‘ Wedd «-
the Stator (many others have offemd to

amu^when "alT o?h Ver S ° t0UChed a$ Wh6n Sir WilHam Pressed a his offer"
eix^umgj wnen all other arguments hxc\ A T

brotherly offer, he would not believe I treated hi! T aCCep J ed his
And a brother, indeed, he has been ’ With o-ood f ^ 7 ** * br0ther ‘
off the liabilities incurred bv the mn». th good tImes coming he paid
refused to be repaid he snenf tb P P ’ and m tde case °f friends who
the names of the original donors^ 0101167 “ deSerV “ g PuWic ° bjects ’ b

CHAPTER VI.

Book on Gujarat, a true Picture of life in Town and Village — Trans-
lations of Max Muller’s Hibbert Lectures dealing with the Religions of
India.

The immense and intimate knowledge of the land
and its people, thus acquired, he obtains and keeps up
by prolonged tours. His is not the ordinary journalist's
information, picked up at third hand from books. He
has always delighted to be in living touch with the
people, to observe all aspects of their life, from the
highest to the lowest, from the Rajah's court to
the ryot’s hut, to see with his own eyes their condition
under the present rule, and to hear with his own ears
their views about the rulers, and their grievances, real
and imaginary, against the Government. Born among
the people, and mixing with them from his earliest
years, he has always been careful to keep himself in
the closest touch with them. The objection, usually
brought against the newly created class of natives, that
they do not know the real condition of their poorer
countrymen, from whom they are alienated by their
European training, cannot be urged against Malabari.
F ew men know the real people of India, and especially
the people of his own province of Gujarat, so intimately.
F ewer still have favoured either their own countrymen

io 4 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

' or the rulers with the results of their knowledge
Malabari gave the result of his first tours in a series of
sketches of men and manners contributed to the
Bombay Review and the I ndian Spectator. They were
much appreciated at the time of publication, and
helped to bring their writer into greater notice. Later
at the suggestion of competent critics, they were

reS . C . U \ d f? m the obIIvion of a newspaper file, to be
published m a volume, entitled Gujarat and the Guia-

ratis^y Messrs. Allen, of London. This book first
revealed the extraordinary command of the writer
over Enghsh, all the more surprising in one who
■ had received but a poor education and had read but
little of its literature. The ease and vigour with which
many educated Indians of to-day wield the language of
their rulers is really remarkable, and is a matter of won-
der to Englishmen themselves, as well as to the other
uropeans who despair of attaining perfection in the
ig y idiomatic and irregular speech of England,
his is chiefly owing to the assiduous attention the
n lans pay to English ; and mastery over the foreign
tongue is often obtained at the sacrifice of their mother
ongue. ut Malabari is not an assiduous student,
nor a learned scholar. His reading has been con- .
essedly very limited and desultory. With literature '
n its wider sense he is practically unacquainted. The
great masterpieces, to which students give their days
and nights, have been skipped by him. His study of
Gujarati literature must have taken up not a little of
is scanty leisure. He has cultivated that literature to
some extent, and, as we have seen, written works in it

‘ Gujarat and the Gujaratis /

i°5

which will live as long as that simple dialect lasts.
Under these circumstances his power over the English
language appears phenomenal. It can only be explained
by his genius. The language comes to him naturally,
and his strength of expression and felicity of phrase
are instinctive. It is the privilege of genius to seize \
at once, and by a short cut, what ordinary understand-
ings grasp only after laborious efforts, and even then
imperfectly. Malabari has such genius, and it shines
forth not only in his exquisite style, but also in his
thoughts, which are always more or less original. He
also possesses what is the usual concomitant of genius,
what a great teacher of our days, Carlyle, calls the
essence of all real greatness, the unconsciousness of
possessing it. A friend, who is himself a shrewd
observer and a cultured critic, and who has watched
Malabari’s career from the beginning, calls him an
unconscious genius, if ever there was one. Some of
the larger problems of metaphysics, which he had him-
self pondered over long and intently, and at whose
partial solution he had arrived after deep reading and
still deeper thinking, Malabari, he says, innocent of
any philosophical reading, saw at a glance, going to
their very heart, and offering explanations which coin-
cided with the theories of some of the greatest thinkers.
This genius has not had full opportunity to show itself
in literature. For Malabari has always tried to be
a man of action, rather than a man of letters or of
speculation. Still, it can be seen plainly in the little
that he has published. Nearly every book of his
bears the traces of an original and vigorous mind.

io6 India : F orty Years of Progress and Reform.

The volume on Gujarat and the Gujaratis is also
stamped with the genius of the author. He has ob-
served and seized all the real and essential traits of
Gujarati character. It is the real living men and
women that he portrays, in their strength as well as
weakness, and not the mere outward husk of dress and
manners with which most writers regale us when writino-
on such a subject. He presents his observations in
a style which is genuine and eminently readable. This
comes out of truth to nature, both in the matter and
the manner ; there is little that is artificial or unnatural
about the book. He looked upon human nature round
about him with his own natural eyes, without the aid
of the spectacles of books, and depicted it in simple,
natural terms that came to him spontaneously. The
book is a reflex of the author in a high degree.
Humour of a iich vein pervades it. A.nd in humour
the man also abounds. Those who know him but
slightly may not credit Malabari with this rare gift.
But closer contact reveals the predominant element of
the humorous in his character. ‘ The writer/ says
a critic of this book, ‘ is truly a humorist in the best
sense of the word. He proposes, to quote Thackeray,
to awaken and direct your love, y r our pity, your
kindness, your scorn for untruth, pretension, and
imposture. Your tenderness for the weak, the poor,
the oppressed, the unhappy.” To the best of his
means and ability, he comments on almost all the
ordinary actions and passions of life. He takes
upon himself to be the w^eek-day preacher so to
speak. Accordingly, as he finds, and speaks, and

* Gujarat and the Gujaratis / 107

feels the truth best, we regard him, esteem him,
sometimes love him.’

Gujarat and the Gujaratis is replete with human
interest, full of pictures drawn from the life with rare
fidelity and tact. In this respect Malabari comes up
to another great writer of our day, Mr. Rudyard Kip-
ling, who excels in describing many phases of life and
character, as they are actually to be found in this
work-a-day world, in the language of the persons
themselves, with all its irregularity and uncouthness.
Malabari has had a harder task before him. Kipling
has described Englishmen in the English language, for
the nervous speech of Mulvaney, with its eccentricities
and peculiarities, is, after all, English. Malabari had
to depict his countrymen in foreign colours, to trans-
late the thoughts and words of simple Indians in
the language of their rulers. Much of the innate
force and humour must necessarily evaporate in this
process. But our author has succeeded in retaining
enough of both while conveying them through a
foreign medium.

It seems to have been his object to paint the
character of the people in almost all phases and rela-
tions. He has selected his typical subjects from all
ranks and walks of life, and presented each in his own
sphere, with his natural environment. Quidquid agunt
homines , votum , timor,ira , voluptas, gaicdia, discursus - —
all that the Gujaratis do and are, their ideas, super-
stitions, fashions, foibles, and frivolities — these form
the staple of his book. It requires gifts of a very high
order to understand human character aright and to

io8 India: Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

depict it as it is. Even persons with whom we come
in close contact, whose actions we observe, and whom
we can interrogate personally, are as a rule but par-
tially known to us. Each of us must, in many points,
be a puzzle to his neighbour. Nay, each is a puzzle to
himself. ‘ Know thyself’ was the first command of the
ancient philosopher to man, and this knowledge is
attained by most of us the latest. Thus, if it be so
hard to know ourselves and our neighbours as we
really are, how much more difficult must it be to know
peoples who are separated from us by the barriers of
race, religion, and language ?

The English feel this difficulty in India at every
turn. They cannot, with all their patience and sagacity,
understand the character of the peoples whom they
have to govern. There is a wide gulf yawning between
the two. Then the opportunities of fathoming the
Indian character are also few. That character is to
be seen at its best in the villages which remain now
what they were hundreds of years ago, untouched by
the civilization of the Western rulers. The Indian, as
he is seen in the towns and cities, where alone the
Englishman generally sees him, is not the true Indian,
but a mixture of Eastern and Western influences.
Malabari knows this difficulty of the rulers, and traces
to their ignorance many of the errors which shallow
and prejudiced Indian critics attribute to their selfish-
ness and want of principle. In his Gujarat he offers
his own intimate knowledge of the people to the rulers,
who can glean from its pages much that they want but
can rarely get from their personal experience. Not

log

1 Gujarat and the Gujaratis /

only are the home life, and views, and habits of the
people minutely and accurately described, but the
foreigner is warned against being misled by those self-
seeking subordinates and others who hang about the
official camp, and give out just those views and facts
which they know would be pleasing to the masters.
These are very humorously exposed in Gujarat , and
it will be the fault of the young Civilian alone if he
allows himself to be imposed upon by such parasites.
The book, indeed, should be invaluable to those new-
comers whose lot has been cast in the province of
Gujarat, and who have to govern its mild but very
peculiar population- Copies of it should be found in
every Civilian’s kit ; he would be wise to study it as
he studies his Regulations and Codes.

Gujarat and the Gujaratis was, of course, a success.
It has gone through several editions, and brought the
writer money as well as fame. Competent Anglo-
Indian statesmen acknowledge its high merits, especially
its usefulness to the rulers. They urge the writer to
do for the other provinces of India what he has done
for his own Gujarat. It would be well if such books
were published. It is no exaggeration to say that the
task of governing the country would be to a large
extent simplified thereby. As it is, Gujarat stands
alone, and Malabari has not followed it up with the
desired volumes, Perhaps he has shrunk from the
task, because he does not know the other parts of
India so intimately as his mother province. But still,
his knowledge of the whole country is almost unrivalled,
obtained mostly at first hand during his prolonged

no India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

and well-planned tours, or ‘campaigns,’ as he half-
humorously calls them.

Tours have been with him one of the chief means
of achieving his objects. He undertakes them, not
for pleasure, but as a matter of duty. He rightly
thinks that public opinion should be stirred, formulated
and organized by the leaders personally visiting the
centres of thought and activity, guiding, encouraging,
checking, and controlling. With the spirit of the true
missionary in him, he goes about the country regardless
of personal comfort, thinking only of his cause. Not
of a robust constitution, he has been struck down many
a time on his tours, and saved with difficulty, sometimes
after prolonged suffering. His first tour was, as we
have seen, over Kathiawad, for the journal started by
his friend, Mr. Martin Wood. His next two tours
were planned on a much larger scale, and were under-
taken for a higher purpose.

This purpose was his project of translating into
the vernaculars Prof. Max Muller’s Hibbert Lectures
on the Origin ■ and Growth of Religion as illustrated
by the Religions of India. It has been Malabari’s aim
throughout his life to try to bring the East and the
West closer, to unite them by the bonds of knowledge
, and sympathy. He has pursued this aim steadily In
j his own works - In Prof Max Muller’s works he
f found the same aim predominating. And he therefore
j rescdved bring them to the notice of his countrymen
I m their own languages. ‘ Prof. Max Muller,’ says he,
j has laboured all his life to 'bring about a union
I am ongst nations. That union has long been aimed at.

Max Muller's Hibbert Lectures.

in

A marriage between East and West was arranged
even before the days of the illustrious William Jones.
In that work of union you trace the hand of a higher
Power than that of man. Modern Indian history
teaches you that. But I may say that Max Muller
and his contemporaries have contributed largely to
bringing to the surface the practical results of that
process of, let us hope, progressive union. By his
works he has given new birth, so to say, to Sanskrit ;
he has resuscitated, I say, he has helped to regenerate,
the language and literature of our land.’ In a spirit
of enlightened sympathy, Prof. Max Muller has pointed
out to Europeans all that is good in the religions of
India. On the other hand, he candidly shows to the
Indians the defects and errors of their creeds, and
warns them against overvaluing them and interpreting
them as they were never meant to be interpreted.
The Hibbert Lectures embody the substance, so to
say, of all that Max Muller had to say on Indian reli-
gions, based on his life-long study of these as well as
of the religions and philosophic thought of the West.
Even independently of this, they are an important
contribution to metaphysical speculation, inasmuch as
the author discusses in them the possibility of religion
in the light of modern science, and takes the history
of religion in India merely to illustrate this central
problem. ‘ I might define,’ he writes, ‘ my object by
saying that it was a reconsideration of a problem, left
unsolved by Kant in his Critiqiie of Pure Reason ,
after a full analysis of the powers of our knowledge
and the limits of their application. Can we have

112 I ndia : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

any knowledge of the transcendent or supernatural ?
. . . My object was to show that we have a perfect
right to make one step beyond Kant, namely, to
show that our senses bring us into actual contact with
the Infinite, and that in that sensation of the Infinite
lies the living germ of all religion V

It was Malabari’s plan to publish translations, in the
principal vernaculars, of a series of European works,
which would help to give shape to his idea of the
union of East and West. Prof. Max Muller’s work
was chosen to commence the series, both on account
of its intrinsic merit and of the high reputation of
the author among Indians. Malabari visited various
towns and native states to interest influential people
in his project, and to obtain the necessary funds.
Men like Keshub Chunder Sen, Rajendralala Mitra,
and others, favoured the idea. They believed, with
the enthusiastic projector, that these translations
would bring about a gradual religious revival such
as the country sadly requires. ‘ India wants nothing
so much as a religious revival, or rather a restoration.
There is no real unity for the nation except through '
one faith j political unity is uncertain. The struggle
lies in future between a new religion for the people
and revival of the old. And to a consummation of
the latter, which will be through a natural process,

I believe that the labours of Max Muller will con-
tribute more than of any other living authority/
Malabari laboured strenuously for his object. He
travelled far and wide ; wrote, spoke, addressed the

1 Biographical Essays , pp. 160-162.

Max Muller s Hibbert Lectures. 113

people, interviewed Rajahs and nobles. But little
practical good has resulted from his efforts. He has
succeeded in publishing the Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali,
and Hindi versions. The Sanskrit was condemned
as unreliable, and the Tamil has not yet been pub-
lished. It argues very little for the real advancement
of the Indians when schemes like this, which required
but a moderate sum of money and only average
literary talents, have to languish for want of adequate
support from them, though the highest names were
enlisted on its side.

Sir William Hunter was amongst the first, in India,
to appreciate the value of these translations ; and he
did much, as President of the Education Commission,
to popularize the scheme. Sir William has, indeed,
been Malabari’s staunch friend and supporter almost
from the beginning of his career. He has cheered
our hero in moments of despondency, and used his
pen in the public press, and his voice in the Council
of the Empire, to further his political no less than
his social and literary gospels. ‘ Once or twice,’ says
Malabari, ‘ I would have broken down but for the
sympathy of this gifted civilian.’

CHAPTER VII.

Social Reform, Malabari’s life-work — The Position of Indian Women

The Marriage Question— The Age of Consent Act.

Even the slight achievement in the field of literary
and religious revival described above is mainly due
to Malabari’s perseverance. For what we may call
dogged persistence is the most striking trait in his
character. What he has once resolved upon he will
anyhow carry through. Difficulties, however great,
he minds but little. If man can overcome them, he
will. He is baffled only by superhuman obstacles.

‘ Opposition,’ he once said to the present writer, ‘ only
serves to rouse me, and makes me strive the harder.’
Tenax propositi may very justly be said of him. It is
this tenacity that has enabled him to overcome almost
superhuman obstacles, and do what good he has done
to his country during his brief lifetime. The work
which he now undertook was one which called forth
all his best powers. It was a work which only his
unwillingness to accept defeat could have carried
through. The question, when he took it up, was not
at all within the range of practical politics, and his
advocacy of it was set down as quixotic. But within
a few years he made it the burning topic of the day
moved the Government that was at first immovable,’

Social Reform.

and succeeded in obtaining a practical, though, unfor-
tunately, but a partial solution of it.

This was the question of Social Reform— aptly
described by Miss Nightingale as ‘ perhaps the greatest
reform the world has yet seen ’—with which Malabari
has wholly identified himself, for which he may be
said to have lived, and for which he is ready to die,
if need be. People in England cannot easily under-
stand this question of Indian social reform, or the
extremely arduous nature of the efforts made to bring
it about. The social reform of which we have to
speak is of a very elementary character. On account
of the complex nature of the social organization, and
the long duration of the abuses it has given rise to,
the task of reform of even the simplest kind becomes
very hard and unpopular. India is rigidly conservative
m this respect. Nothing is so popular as the doctrine
of laissez faire. Social abuses, which nowhere else
would have been allowed to exist for any length of
time, have been tolerated here for ages with charac-
teristic indifference. Customs with a ruinous tendency,
once introduced, take root in India, and are surrounded
by a halo of authority. If left to themselves, these
customs flourish with all the sanctity of religion. In '
India every custom, however unintelligible or inde-
fensible, is sheltered under the name of relio-i on • and
the attempt to reform it is taken as an attempt against '
religion, and denounced as impious. The priestly
class, which wields an authority in social matters that
is unknown even in the most priest-ridden countries of
t e West, stands up for these abuses and objectionable

1 1 6 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

customs, and brings its enormous influence to bear,
directly as well as indirectly, upon those who would
try to reform them. The hold which the priests
have upon the female members of the family is used
against the reformers, who are thus confronted with
bitter opposition in their own homes. The complex
machinery of caste, which unites Hindus and holds
them as in a dead mans embrace, is set against them.
The horrors of excommunication hang constantly over
their heads. The social reformer’s task is thus of
a most trying nature. Many a stout heart has been
bioken under the strain of persecution. A man may
not care for himself ; he may, in his own person, defy
any persecution, however bitter : but when his whole
family is condemned along with him, and severed from
all intercourse with the society around them — when,
for his zeal, his near and dear ones are made to suffer
with him nothing short of heroism can bear him up.
It is unreasonable to expect such heroism from many.
Karsandas Mulji, a Hindu of Gujarat, showed such
courage in the last generation, and for a long time
defied caste and superstition. But he, too, had to
yield at last. His last days were embittered by the
helpless state to which his family had been reduced.
He died in grief and solitude. Caste had proved too
• strong for his individual efforts. His family could
not defy it. They retracted, and underwent a humi-
liating penance in order to be taken back into the
fold of their caste. Superstition and bigotry thus
triumphed. A terrible lesson was taught to all recu-
sants and reformers in Gujarat. Few dared to follow

The Position of Indian Women .

117

in the steps of Karsandas. Yet, what was the offence
for which he and his family suffered? The head and
front of it was a voyage across the seas to England.
A man may cross the Indian Ocean and go to Africa,
and still remain an orthodox Hindu. The sanctity
of caste is not affected by this. But let him go to
Europe and his caste as well as creed is lost in the
sea. His caste, that most sacred thing about him,
the one thing needful to be saved, is lost, and he is
unfit to be a Hindu. Nay, if Hinduism had its own
way, he would be unfit even to live. The man, then,
who dared to cross the water and visit England,
became that incurable sinner, the social reformer.
This might sound strange to English ears : yet this
easy and elementary reform, as it must appear to
foreigners, was fraught with grave danger to the rash
one who ventured upon it.

The caste prohibition against going to Europe
seems puerile, and not very harmful in itself. But
the task of social reform, which Malabari undertook,
was by no means harmless. It touched the position
of women in India. This question has been acknow-
ledged to be the most pressing of the Indian social
questions of our day, and is at the root of them all.
The future of society is based mainly on woman, and
according as she occupies an exalted or degraded
position in it, its stability and moral worth are esti-
mated. Malabari’s great object is the regeneration
of his country under the peaceful sway of Britain.
Education is spreading wide, chiefly among the men.
But he rightly holds that the status of the women is

n8 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

the key of the whole situation. Unless the women
are educated and emancipated from the bonds of
ignoble customs, there can be little hope for the future.
The family is the unit of the State, and the family is
based on the mother and the wife. Within their
sphere, and this is a very important one, women in
India are supreme and all-powerful, in spite of their
ignorance. In their present state this power which
they wield is wrongly applied, sometimes even to
thwart the efforts of their own benefactors. If they
become enlightened they will employ their influence
in the right channels and for a worthy purpose. The
influence of women in India is well illustrated by the
saying of an educated leader of Hindu society, that it
is easier to defy Her Majesty’s Secretary of State than
to defy one’s own mother-in-law. ‘ In their own house-
holds,’ remarks Miss Florence Nightingale with true
insight, ‘be it in hut or palace, even though never
seen, they hold the most important moral strongholds
of any women on earth. Supported by custom, Indian
women are absolute within their sphere.’ The influ-
ence of women being so strong and far-reaching, it is
all the more essential that they should be educated
and enlightened, and thus be made to share, so far as
may be, in the blessings of British civilization. But
the Oriental’s ideas on the subject of educating women
are peculiarly narrow. Although in practice woman
holds a very influential and important position in the
household, yet in theory her status is very degraded.
She is not the mate and companion of man, but his
servant and slave. She must be in a subordinate

The Marriage Question. 119

position, therefore she must be kept in ignorance.
To educate her is considered almost a sin. There
are current among the people many absurd super-
stitions about the spread of knowledge among women ;
what dire calamities to the race, physical and moral,
will follow such an impious attempt ! Still, in spite
of opposition, female education has made some pro-
gress in the country, especially in the large cities,
during the present generation. A fair percentage of
girls have been returned as school-going in the last
census, and there are signs that the percentage will
be higher at the end of the present decade.

Education is a good agency for raising the status
of women. But the women of India are not merely
in a state of ignorance. They are also, as we have
explained, in a state of servility, a sort of bondage.
Emancipation from this servile state must, then, pre-
cede their education. The social evils and disabilities
under which they suffer must be first removed if they
are sought to be enlightened and educated. Prominent
among these social evils of Indian society are infant
marriages and enforced widowhood. These two, which
follow one from the other and are closely connected,
have taken deep root and done infinite harm to the
race. Marriage is considered by the H indus the most
sacred and essential act in a woman’s life. Every
other consideration must give way to this. It is the
most solemn duty of the parents to have their daughter
married. An unmarried daughter is the greatest curse
of the family. She is unhappy herself, and the cause
of daily misery to her relatives. The Hindu believes

i2o India Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

that there, is no salvation for him without marriao- e
and male issue. The gates of the other world can be
entered only through marriage. This institution beinc
thus of such a vast importance, it is easy to imagine
t e haste with which parents want to dispose of their
daughters in marriage. The haste is not limited even
to the age when the girl is fairly grown up and becomes
fit to undergo the cares of maternity. Owing to the
prevalence of certain absurd customs, there is a scarcity
of husbands, an evil which is intensified by the restric-
tion of marriage within a very limited circle. Parents
therefore, have often to find husbands for their
aughters as soon as these are born. The result
js the system of infant marriages, which, as the

ate Mr. Justice Telang admitted, is all but universal
m India.

These marriages in infancy are harmful in them-
selves in many ways; they prove disastrous to the
race, owing to several other customs existing side by
side Marriage is a sacrament, and therefore indis-
so uble. But the husband may marry another wife or
more than one, in the lifetime of his first wife. This
is one cause of unhappiness. Then there is the dis-
panty ° age, temperament, education; there is also
the risk of disease and death. Altogether, the marriage
is about as foolish and precarious an arrangement as

Le S P vl 7° r SUperstition to devise. As regards
g , child of seven, even less, is sometimes married

to a man of fifty or sixty. What a future the poor

child-wife has before her ! Before she comes to the

age of discretion the old husband may die ; and she is

The Marriage Question . I2 j

a wife no longer, but a widow ! Infant marriages thus
lead to infant widowhood, and widowhood, painful for
all women, is much more painful to the Hindu woman,
considering the age at which she generally becomes

a widow, and the pains and penalties attaching to the
state of widowhood.

According to modern Hindu custom and usage
a widow is not allowed to marry again. Though
a man may marry several wives at one and the same
.tune, a woman is allowed to marry but once, and if
she loses her husband she has to pass the rest of her
life, however young, in a state of enforced celibacy.
A widow is considered as scarcely to belong to society.
She is held a sinner, and her presence is shunned
as inauspicious. Her misfortune is often taken for
a crime. She is made to bear all the outward marks
of widowhood, not only as regards dress, but further
by being deprived of her beauty. Her hair, the chief
ornament of a woman, the essential element in her
beauty, is removed by force, and she is made to pass
the rest of her days in this unnatural condition. She
also suffers under several legal disabilities. She has
no real control over her husband’s property, very little
actual share in it. She depends for bare maintenance

on the family, by whom she is looked down upon as
a burden and a nuisance.

Thus, infant marriage and enforced widowhood are
connected evils. The girl is married in infancy. If
the husband dies, she is compelled to remain a widow
to the end of her days, and to sacrifice life and all life’s
happiness at the shrine of superstition. This double

i22 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

curse undermines society, both physically and morally.
Infant marriage leads to early maternity. The wife
becomes a mother before she has herself hardly ceased
to be a child. The growth of mind as well as body is
arrested by this forced and unnatural process. The
mother having had no time to develop in a natural
way, the child also must be a weakling, even if it
survives its birth. The race has thus deteriorated in
the course of generations. The physical deterioration
of a large portion of the Hindu community is chiefly
due to this custom of infant marriages. Enforced
widowhood, again, is the cause of moral degradation
in not a few cases. A glance at the census will suffice
to show how enormous is the extent covered by infant
mai i iage and enforced widowhood, especially amon 0-
what are called the higher classes.

Such being the great evils of Hindu society, it

would be surprising if no attempt were made by the

newly educated class to remedy them. Several Hindu

gentlemen have endeavoured to paint the evils for the

community in all their ghastly forms. Others have

proved conclusively that the ancient scriptures do not

enjoin infant marriages and do not force perpetual

widowhood on girls, but permit of remarriage. The

most notable among these was Pandit Ishwar Chunder

idyasagar of Bengal, a liberal-minded scholar and

philanthropist. Many stray attempts were made by

him and other heroic souls to break the force of
*

ignorance and superstition. But nothing substantial
came of them. Hindu society seemed incapable of
reform from within. A strong impetus from outside

123

The Marriage Question.
was needed. And this came now from a neighbouring-

v. O o

quarter.

Malabari had from his early days felt the deepest
sympathy with Hindu society. Though born a Parsi,
he had inherited from his mother an almost incredible
attachment for Hindus. She had come in close contact
with her Hindu friends and neighbours, and treated
them as her kith and kin. The boy had seen his
mother tending Hindu children, visiting Hindu widows,
and making herself generally useful to all, of whatever
caste or creed. This had left an indelible impression
on his mind and heart, and he followed the noble
example, if not with greater intensity, at least over
a wider sphere of usefulness. The woes of the Hindu
widow were known to him well enough. In his earliest
volume of verse he has sung pathetically of them, and
sworn, like a knight-errant of old, to eradicate them
some day. In his boyhood he had witnessed some
heartrending results of premature marriage and com-
pulsory widowhood. These haunted him during day,
and startled him from sleep at night. ‘ The sights
burnt themselves into my brains,’ he explained to
a friend just before undertaking his crusade. ‘ It is
not merely that I know the miseries of widowhood,’
he protested to another friend, ‘ not merely that I feel
them, feel for and with the widow ; I am the widow
for the time being.’ This may well be believed of one
with his intense feeling, who throws his whole heart
and mind into the cause he has espoused. It is this
eagerness to work and suffer for others that, above
everything else, makes him out to be a hero. If this

124 India : F orty Years of Progress and Reform.

■ ^ — —

is the essence of chivalry, Malabari is indeed the most
chivalrous of India s sons. Anyhow, it is true charity
that prompts him, charity of a higher order than that
which enables the rich or the powerful to give a fraction
of their superfluity to others. In the words of a distant
and therefore disinterested observer, Malabari 'has
given his life and fortune away to the cause of the
weak/ In undertaking the cause of the Hindu child-
vife and child-widow, he did not for a moment think
that it was the cause of an alien race he was to
champion. He considered himself bound to the
suffering race by closer ties than those of blood or
creed. True charity knows of no creed and no blood.
Its object is to alleviate human suffering wherever
found. Precedence is given by it, not to a kinsman
and co-religionist, but, to quote our reformer, ‘ to
him whose need is the sorest/ Natures like his do
not pause to inquire whether the sufferer is Hindu,
Parsi, Mahomedan, or Christian. It is enough for
them to know the misfortune to be able to feel the
need of removing it. Besides, his own community had
suffered from the same evils, and was partly suffering
from them still. But he rightly thought that Hindu
society, with whom the evils arose, and among whom
they flourished, needed immediate help. The Parsis,
being a compact and energetic body, were able to look
after their own affairs, and had, with little extraneous
aid, removed several social abuses. Malabari saw the
lack of this spirit of self-help among his Hindu neigh-
bours, as he also saw the causes of it, and resolved to
bring them what brotherly help he could.

T

125

The Marriage Question.

- He therefore stepped back from the line of literary
and political ambition, to give himself up to the
humbler rble of social reformer. This involved immense
self-sacrifice. There is little that he could not have
achieved as politician and man of letters. As it is, his
literary talents, hampered though they are by practical
rvork, have shone brightly whenever he has cared to
disclose them. In politics, too, he would have risen to
a prominent position, though he is meant by nature
to be a statesman rather than a politician. He would
have obtained honours and emoluments without stint.
But for the success of his cause he preferred to pass
them by.

He has given up the last ten years of his life to his
self-imposed task of duty. After silent sympathy and
careful watching, he came before the public in 1894
with his now famous ‘ Notes’ on Infant Marriao-e and

o

Enforced Widowhood. His object was not to ask for
Government interference in these matters, for he knew
such a demand would be premature and vexatious.
He submitted the notes for consideration to high
officials and influential representatives of the people, '
and desired to ascertain the drift of opinion on the
subjects, and on the advisability or otherwise of inter-
ference. Persons in the position of the Viceroy and
his Councillors, Governors, Lieutenant-Governors, and
others warmly approved of his zeal in this cause,
acknowledged the two questions to be of first impor-
tance, and sympathized with his efforts to remove the
evils of society. But they were not in favour of
Government interference at that stage. Until the

126 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

people, or their representatives, first moved in the
matter and asked Government to intervene, they could
do httle. They advised Malabari to sound non-official
public opinion more widely, and to induce it to brinsr
the subject before the rulers of its own accord. He
took this advice, and forthwith opened his crusade.
He undertook extensive tours through the country, to
organize opinion on the questions and to arrange for
a general appeal to the Government. His labours
were incessant. Associations were started and com-
mittees formed in the principal centres- of thought.
Deputations and petitions were got up. In short
a band of kindred spirits were gathered around him,'
who worked, loyally and enthusiastically for this
national object. Nearly every province, from the
Punjaub to Mysore, was visited, and enlisted on his
side. The spirit of the true missionary was stirred in

him. Malabari, as a public man, appears at his best
during this crusade.

The result of all these exertions was that within
a few years the question of social reform, which was
ormerly dismissed with an expression of conventional
sympathy, came up before the Government for prac-
tical solution. The Indian Government obtained
what it had wanted. Strong memorials and petitions
up to it. asking for some sort of actio" on S
part. ISut still, the British Indian Government, with
its traditional caution and circumspection, hesitated
to act. Meanwhile, also, the reactionary elements of
Hindu society had made a stir. The orthodox party
shielded the objectionable custom of infant marriage

The Marriage Question.

127

under the name of religion, and raised the cry of
religion in danger to excite and mislead the igno-
rant. Thus Malabari and his lieutenants had, not
only the apathy of an alien government to overcome,
but also the active antipathy and opposition of his
reactionary countrymen themselves. These latter
tried to frighten Government by conjuring up pictures
of another mutiny, which would follow its interference
in social matters. For months were rebellions and
civil wars wildly talked about, as the inevitable result
of this social reform movement. But Malabari an-
ticipated every move of that kind, and foiled its tactics
at every turn.

After six years’ preparation and organization i
India itself, he thought of enlisting directly tb
sympathy of the people, and especially the women, c
England, on his side. His question being a women
question, he judged rightly that it would be helne
forward by English women. He knew the immens
power that English women have learnt to wield. H
determined to utilize this power in putting the ma
chinery of the State in motion. Personal Interview
were his chief instruments here. He went to Englane
thrice on this mission. He addressed an eloquen
and pathetic ‘Appeal’ to the ‘women of England
on behalf of their Indian sisters. He interested the
whole English press in the subject in a mannei
unknown before. He also tackled opponents in high
position and won them over to his side. Mr Herbert

Spence, be said t0 be one rf ^

alabari s theory of the necessity of State aid in

128 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

dealing with what he calls ‘certain outer aspects of
social reform.’ Finally, a committee, consisting of the
most influential and representative persons, including
prominent English as well as Anglo-Indian statesmen,
men of letters and philanthropists, was established in
London, to urge the necessity of legislative action on
the Indian Government. The chief recommendation,
formally submitted by this committee, was to raise by
law the minimum of the girl’s age when a marriage
can be consummated from ten to twelve years. This
was embodied in the famous Age of Consent Bill of
1891, passed by the Government of Lord Lansdowne.
The English friends who co-operated with Malabari
were very zealous in the cause ; in fact, they were too
zealous for him in some respects. They were not
content with his mild proposals. If they had their
own way, they would have forced the Indian Govern-
ment to go much further in this matter of social reform
than it would have liked to go. But Malabari im-
pressed upon them the prime necessity of hastening
slowly. He sometimes found it more difficult to con-
trol his war-horses than to rouse them to action.
Thus the man who was denounced by the reaction-
aries in India as a firebrand, was the very man who
saved the reform movement from proceeding at too
rapid and headlong a rate. It is well known that
throughout his crusade Malabari has refused to act
as a professional agitator, to embarrass or stultify
Government, even when smarting under their slow-
ness to move.

The Age of Consent Act, which raised the age from

The Age of Consent Act.

ten to twelve, may appear to the English to be a trivial
advance. Even twelve, they may contend, is not at
all adequate for the purpose, and must be raised at
least to fourteen. But for India the advance must be
considered a great and beneficent achievement. Here-
after the age will doubtless be raised to fourteen, and
probably to sixteen. The people themselves, after
experiencing the benefits of the present Act, may
desire such a rise. The Act will thus have an educa-
tive influence. But even as it is, it will do immense
good. The years between ten and twelve constitute
the most critical period in the development of an
Indian girl; and her protection during this period is
an inestimable gain. The years between twelve and
fourteen are considered less critical for the Indian wife
than between ten and twelve. This was one reason
why a comparatively low limit was accepted. The
measure is also recognized as a vindication of a grand
principle, namely, that nothing, not even custom or
religion itself, shall be allowed to militate against the
Berests of humanity. The Age of Consent Act is
t e result of Malabari’s advocacy of social reform in
England as well as India, during nearly ten years,

c f t cl learning of his

nend, Mr. Dayaram Gidumal; and he may well be

proud of it. If true greatness is to be measured, not

so much by the greatness of the result achieved as by

t e magnitude of the difficulties overcome, and of the

obstacles removed during the effort, then the leader of

Indian Social Reform must be said to be really a great

man. His efforts show what could be achieved by

130 India: Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

single-minded zeal and perseverance. Even after the
passing of this Act he has not been idle. He is busy
urging the Government to take up the second pro-
posal of the committee in London, that about abolish-
ing the English-imported law regarding the £ restitution
of conjugal rights.’ His work, moreover, is not limited
to public exertions like those we have recorded. His
private efforts for social reform are indefatigable. He
has working committees in almost every part of the
country, which help, personally, with money and in-
fluence, those who are in need of support. Malabari
and his committees are not content with talking and
passing resolutions as to the desirableness of the re-
marriage of widows and other such questions. They
try actually to bring about these improvements by
means of persuasion and pecuniary aid. They also
employ social reform preachers, whose business is to
travel about and show the better way to the people.
Malabari is in regular correspondence with his agents,
as to every little act of benevolence, and opens his
purse as freely as he wields his pen.

CHAPTER VIII.

Visit to England The Indian Eye on English Life-The Indian
Problem — Latest Gujarati poem— Conclusion.

With the passing of the Age of Consent Act his
active career seems to have closed, for the present at
least. His all-engrossing, self-imposed task is over.
And like most active men, he repines at this loss of
occupation. He seems never to be at his ease but
when engrossed with some work for the good of his
fellow-men. He is young, being barely forty-one,
though in these forty-one years he has done more
than a single life s work. He may still undertake

another great cause of reform, and devote his maturer
energies to it.

Malabari visited England thrice, though for a short
while only each time. His visits were connected with
the question of social reform, and he was really en-
grossed in his work of conversion. But still he was
never so busy as to allow his powers of observing and
studying human nature and character to lie & idle.
And in England he had a very wide and novel field.
He utilized his unusual opportunities of observing
English life in several grades, and made notes of the
more striking features. These he has worked out in
his recently published book, entitled The Indian Eye
t

K 2

132 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

on English Life, /in this volum^Td^foThiT^
countrymen, as regards England, what he has already
done for Englishmen about Gujarat. The work is
almost entirely critical, though there are also some
extremely vivid and lifelike descriptions of men and
, things. The criticism is not always favourable to
the people observed and criticized ; in some places
it severely adverse. Yet the whole book is
conceived in such a candid spirit, the critic is so
generous, so anxious to give credit for everything
that he could honestly praise, and so singularly free
is e rom prejudices, that few will be inclined to find
fault with him even when differing from his views
In this book we see English life at home and in public
analyzed with rare tact and judgement. The English-
man may see. himself in it as an acute foreigner of
wide sympathies and true culture sees him, and may
pro t by this very kindly light vouchsafed to him
As might be expected, the book has run through

r tx e d diti r in a y ?J The «**» ~

eceived with warm applause by the leading journals
m England, India, and even in France. In this last
country, too, the book is likely to become popular, if
translated by a sympathetic hand. The French are
very curious to know all about English character, and

their literature contains two excellent works on it.

Voltaire s Leitres denirt • •

~ , ae P lct > Wlth the cynicism of that

r, e lighter aspects which the people of Eng-
an present to an intelligent and observant foreigner.

M. Tames estimate is based on wider and more
accurate observation, and therefore goes deeper. But

I 33

‘The Indian Eye on English Life /

both these French critics lack the wide sympathy and
keen insight of the Indian, which have made his
criticisms juster as well as more profound, and yet
more palatable, j As a literary work, the book is
allowed to possess merits of a very high order. It
is replete with humour of that gentle, delicate- kind
which never hurts. The style is simple, lucid, and
forcible, while here and there may be found passages
of rare power and beauty, as the one, for instance, on
Faith and Doubt. But with all its merits, the work
is not comprehensive enough, omitting some important
sides of English life. It also suffers, like much of his
literary work, from want of method and of leisure.
These blemishes, in fact, characterize the artist as
well as his work. ) He seems to be always in a hurry,
and his work "Fears distinct traces of this. He sug-
gests more than he explains. This is due partly to
defects of early training, and more so to the literary
artist having merged himself in the practical philan-
thropist. Be this what it may, the Indian Eye is
remarkably free from the crudities of some of his
earlier writings. fA. Saturday Reviewer compares the «
author of the / ndmn Eye with Mr. Rudyard Kipling
at his best, whilst other critics have welcomed the
book in terms of high praise, expecting from it nothing
but good both to England and to India. This is
really the tendency of almosFevery thing that Malabari
has written. H is Indian Muse and -Gujarat and the
Gzijaratis are instances in point."] If some enterprising
publisher were to bring out a handy reprint of these
writings, with some of those autobiographical sketches

i34 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

scattered over the columns of the Indian Spectator, we
believe he would confer a lasting benefit on the public,
while at the same time making a good investment for
himself. A volume or two of Malabariana would be
appreciated all over the world where the Eno-lish
language is spoken. His English and vernacular
works might also be placed with advantage within
the reach of the student class. Not a few of them
deserve to be used as text-books at school and college.

Malaban s latest literary work is a small volume of
verse, put forth under the title of Anubhavika that is
‘Experiences, in Life.' In it he returns to mothe^
Gujarati, as m his earliest poetical effort, and gives
a series of sonnets, moralizing on some of the strange «
and almost dramatic experiences he has obtained in
i e. A high ethical tone predominates here, as in all
his poetical works. The poem on Active Duty is one
of the best in the volume. The volume contains an'
introductory ode to his native Gujarat, which shows
t e deep love he still cherishes for the country of his
irth and early training. He has seen, over and over
again, the whole continent of India ; indeed, there are
very few who know it so well as he. He has seen
England and English life. He has seen Europe.
Yet his heart, like a true patriot’s, yearns for his
beloved province of Gujarat, where were laid the
scenes of his childhood. This is characteristic of him.
Though he has imbibed the true spirit of Western
civilization and culture, he does not despise the East,
and loves the land of his birth with an undying love.
(Wemust not omit some mention here of The Indian

' The Indian Problem I

I 35

Problem, published in the shape of a memorandum
/ during his third visit to England. In this Malabari
gave, in his own forcible and felicitous language, the
gist of a conversation he had had with certain leading

o

‘ statesmen. The leaflet takes an all-round view of the
present political situation in India ; explains how the
difficulties of governing' it will increase with the in-
crease of English education and the spread of Western
ideas; to what extent the difference in ideals is
responsible for the growing tension between natives
and Europeans ; and what are the real dangers ahead,
as distinct from the imaginary. With charming frank-
ness he preaches at the official class, on the one
hand, and at their critics in the press, on the other.
All this he does without indulging in one offensive
remark in the course of his discussion of some of the
most bitterly controverted topics of the day. He
must be a true friend off India and England alike who
dares so much for each of them. Owing to its own
merits, no less than the position of the writer, The
Indian Problem is looked upon as a sort of vade
meczim for statesmen and publicists. It has had the

general approval of responsible officers of the Crown
and leaders of opinion.

We have now rapidly glanced at Malabari’s work,
literary and philanthropic. Within our narrow limits
we have not had enough space for personal details.
To describe the work, rather than the personality of
the hero, has been our object, and consistently with it
we have hitherto spoken almost entirely of Malabari s
work. This is also in keeping with his own aim in

life. He has sunk his personality in his work and his
cause. Complete effacement of self has been his
idea ; and he has steadily pursued it throughout

KV m iS n0t beCaUSe he is without

fuTl 1 T- T^’ he $ayS ’ He iS Very ambiti ous,

y sharing that last failing of noble minds. But bv
a course of severe self-discipline, he has crushed’ all
personal ambition and love of self out of himself. I n
this alone, if not in other respects, his life is a cmeat
esson to those who would do good to their country.
Public hfe is affected chiefly from ambitious motives
an ove of fame. Popular applause, the admiration

mu titudes, is as the very breath of the
nostrils to most public men. Malabari has steadily
avoided such popularity. Nor has he ever cared for
a life of ease and comfort. For a man of his oppor-
tunities, he has preferred to live in poverty and
obscurity without noise or show of any kind, except
such as the nature of his work rendered unavoidable
It is an open secret that he has spent the larger half
of his income on public objects ever since he began to
earn. Talking to him one day on the subject, the

present writer asked how he could give so much and
so often from his little onri T

What could th mean” H ^ t0 ^

u mis mean • His answer was character-

‘ StlC : ‘ Shal ‘ 1 "1- - means ? It means the

me coat to your back for years, the same everything

so long as you could pull on with it. It means

sLtvT' n ° ' iVing “ St >' fc ' “ *** into

society It somettmes means being very nearly run
y an upstarts carnage, said upstart cracking

#

Conclusion.

i37

his whip behind you. In some matters, it means
daily, hourly self-denial. But I do not repine. What

was perhaps a trial, at first, has now become something
like a triumph.’

We have seen how in the prime of manhood, at
the very height of popularity, with the applause of the
multitude as if ringing in his ears, he bethought him-
self of the dreams of duty that had haunted him in
his boyhood’s day: how he descended, as it were, from
the crest of the wave, to wander barefooted over the
thorny path of poverty and obloquy ; how he declined
all honours and profits, shutting his eyes, not only to
his own future, but even to that of his children, arguing,

‘ lf the Y share the privileges of my life, they must share
its privations too.’ Henceforth he has lived only for

others. Many have profited by his advice and help

from the Raja or Rani in trouble to the school-girl in
Europe struggling with religious doubt, or the Indian
school-boy at home or abroad struggling with poverty.
Many have been helped by him to official or social
position. And some of these have abused his kind-
ness, betrayed his confidence, traded upon his name,
even personated the unsuspecting recluse for their
own evil purposes. But no abuse or ill-requital has
turned him against his fellows. His ‘enthusiasm of
humanity’ has remained unabated in spite of all
difficulties and disappointments. It was probably this
trait in his character that once reminded a distinguished

civilian of the career of that prince of enthusiasts,
Gautama Buddha.

It required no ordinary self-denial in a man of his

138 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

talents and inclinations to keep himself out of the
sphere of active politics wherein, chiefly, educated
Indians are assured of public applause. He has kept
out of the reach of all such applause. He chose his
own quiet way of public usefulness, and has persevered
m his choice through good report and evil. The name
and fame he has achieved have come rather in spite
of his efforts than owing to them. Had he chosen to
become a political force, there is no saying how high
this ‘born leader of men,’ as Colonel Olcott has
described him, might have risen. Had he chosen to
shine as a literary star, he could have occupied perhaps
the largest space in the galaxy of letters. But early
m life he realized the urgent need of championing the
cause of social reform, that is the cause of the weak
and the neglected, and he determined to do this
himself. How well he has done it we have seen in
the preceding pages. He has given up a brilliant
career, given up all ambition, as has been observed by
Professor Max Muller, many cherished friendships, nay,
health itself and peace of mind, in order to serve his
cause. He has had to fight against long-established
usage and prejudice, not only in his own province, but
all over the continent. But he has succeeded in carry-
ing out a considerable part of his programme in spite
of staggering obstacles and opposition at almost every
step. Naturally, he has made enemies on many sides,
though he has never acted like a firebrand, nor acted’
Ishmael-like, with his hand against every one and
every one’s hand against him. His prudence and
moderation have led him always to proceed on the

Conclusion.

*39

lines of least resistance, and to make as few opponents
as possible. But still, his efforts to reform Hindu
society have shocked conservative minds, and all these
have not yet had the generosity to forgive him. But
if they could not find it in their hearts to forgive
Malabari, he has forgiven them all. Few know what
wrongs he has forgiven, in his private as well as public
dealings. If he is great in his power of giving, he is
even greater in his power of forgiving. His opponents
have sometimes gone out of their way to question his
motives, charging him with selfishness and love of
notoriety. That a man, who resolutely set his face
against self-aggrandizement, who declined offer after
offer of friendly aid, who has avoided every form of
recognition from the State and from society ; that a
man who leads the simple ascetic life that Malabari
leads, shunning the world, despising all its pleasures,
and owning nothing beyond a bare competence, earned
by the sweat of his brow and the force- of his pen;
that such a man should be charged with interested
motives, shows the straits to which his opponents must
have been reduced, for want of facts and arguments.
Whatever may be his faults— and he has never sought
to conceal these— selfishness and love of the world are
certainly not among them. If he had looked to self;
and had swerved from the path of rectitude but a
little, he would not have remained to-day the poor
man that he is. He is sometimes stigmatized as
a friend of the official class, whom he is supposed to
keep in good humour. But if the truth were known,
the relations between Malabari and his official friends

140 India : Forty Years of Progress and Reform.

would be found to be- entirely to his credit. As we
have observed, he is beholden to none of them. If
anything, the balance lies in his favour, so far as good
offices and friendly counsel go, in the interest of the
public and the Government, which he has always held
to be identical. On the other hand, the officials find
m him, when they are in the wrong, an unsparing
critic. By means of his paper, and still more by
means of private correspondence with the authorities,
he has tried hard to expose the irregularities of
individual officials, some of whom have thus come to
hate him and discredit his public movements.

But it is always the fate of such characters to be
misunderstood or underrated in their lifetime. They
themselves, however, care little for it. They find

sufficient consolation in the . consciousness of doing

good. The consciousness of having a high ideal, and
of their efforts to attain that, cheers up such noble
natures. It is conducive to the good of the world
around them to know and appreciate them. It is
always refreshing and edifying to find, in the midst
of thousands pursuing commonplace worldly objects,
a few soaring above them, following a lofty ideal and
giving up all that the rest consider so vitally important
in this pursuit. The world is not so ignorant nor

perverse as to refuse to appreciate a great character
when it is shown one. Still his contemporaries are

too near and know too little . of him to understand

Malabar^ thoroughly. For that the" due perspective
of time is required. Posterity can do better justice
to great men. So when the present generation shall

Conclusion.

141

have passed away, and the succeeding ones shall come

to cast up a proper account of its deeds and to estimate

the men who did them, who shall reap the harvest of

the laborious lives now spent for their benefit; when

many of the names that now loom so large or figure

so often before the public shall shrink to their due

significance; when, in short, every deed and every

man shall appear in their true proportions ; it may

confidently be predicted that the name of Behramji

Malabari— poet, philosopher and publicist, the true

national reformer, the champion of the rights of child-

wives and child-widows — shall be remembered as that

of the greatest benefactor of India in his day, and the

warmest friend of England. Then shall it be time

to realize that it is possible for one to discard all

personal ambition, and to make one’s life sublime by

the exercise of incessant and uncomplaining self-
sacrifice. G

SUPPLEMENT

-M-

The writer of this sketch is indebted to several
of Mr. Malabari’s friends, who have been good enough
to help him with their impressions of the man and his
work. Of these, the following extracts from the
letters of the Countess of Jersey, Sir John Scott, Sir
William Wedderburn, and last, but not least, Mr.
Ardasir Framji, perhaps the most cultured Parsi
gentleman, and father of our first lady graduates, will
be read with special interest : —

From the Countess of Jersey.

. . . What most impressed me was the singular absence of desire
on his part to acquire for himself any advantage or notoriety in the
course of his efforts for his country's good. Many prominent people
in London society would gladly have received Mr. Malabari as an
honoured guest; others would willingly have raised subscriptions for
the furtherance of his work. Mr. Malabari, however, declined both
personal recognition and pecuniary aid. All that he desired was
sympathy and assistance in forcing certain social evils on the notice
of those who might influence public opinion. I do not know when
I have met with a man so single and devoted in his aim. I hope
that your account of this philanthropist will prove useful and stimulat-
ing to your readers.

From Sir John Scott.

. . . Mr. Malabari is, in the truest sense, a reformer, not a mere
innovator. His keen interest in politics has not blinded him to the

144

Supplement.

fact that social reform must precede political reform, or, at any rate is
of grater importance. The homes and inner life of the people must
be made healthy morally and physically, before any solid improvemen
of the outer hfe is attempted. Infant marriages and enforced widow-
hood of infant wives are far greater blocks to the political develop-
ment of India than any of her Congressmen imagine. Indeed, the
whole treatment of women as inferiors, needing no genuine education

bv M r a ’ Mlh 0 ' dT 11 *’ Z fatd t0 Pr ° greSS - ThiS Was realized

t b / , Mr : J ral , a f ban ’ “ d he set hlmself to social reform as the one big

t deserved H t earn6St ’ Cl ° qUent CrUSade haS had *e success
deserved He is too, a writer of a rare kind, for he has originality

and earnestness, whether he writes on Gujarat or London His

grasp of political problems is noteworthy, and his power of seein- all

sides gives him that moderation which convinces °

From Sir William Wedderburn.

Mr uJZ™ Skd that 70U arC intendin ? t° write an account of
Mr. Malaban s career, as an example to his countrymen of philan-
thropic self-sacrifice. I have had Mr. Malabari’s friendship for *

r 2 Z l h r r " t h admirati0n hiS great “ d -tiLg energy
n the cause of suffering humanity, his sympathy being strongest for

those who are most helpless. In ancient times, those who desired to

convert the people had to depend upon oral teaching Such orS

teaching Mr. Malaban has carried on systematically, travelling about

as a social missionary. But modern times have, in addition given

him the power of the press; and by means of his journal and other

of India 0n i 1 n S ^ d ° CtrineS ° Ver the len ^ h a » d ^adth

ot India. I shall rejoice if you can stimulate the younger Generation

to foUow hm in his self-denying labours for the social welfare of the
whole Indian community.

From Mr. Ardasir Framji.

... I have known Mr. Malabari for the last twenty years, and
have watched the growth of his mind and of his work. He is suk an

;“ e s f " e f d 0f mine ’ fiI1 « d such a large place in my

hou o hts and m my respect, that it would be difficult, when speakin-

b leZ Zr e Z myS f 1 fr ° m fallin ^ nt ° ^ration. His life ha°s

ment l! v f SpecuIation as to the possibility Of develop-

ment of the highest order, apart from educational influences.

Supplement.

I 45

The mam features of his character are a high emotion and a keen
intellect; but such is the predominance of the former that the latter
is content to be entirely in its service. No one, not intimate with him ,
can know to what a multitude of interests he is always prepared to
devote himself, provided they concern the relief of human misery or
wrong ; and his capacity in this respect, when he took up the cause
of nearly the entire womanhood of this country, has been known to
all. He is happiest when thus engaged. The energy which he then
exhibits, the journeys across country he undertakes, the pecuniary
sacrifices he makes, the voluminous correspondence he engages in,
and the writings he pours out, are a matter of wonder. On the other
hand, any lull in such work makes him restless, moody, and melan-
choly. It is this which has led him to look upon such work as his
destined vocation, for Mr. Malabari is a firm believer, in a broad way,
in Divine providence actively though inscrutably at work in this world.

As to the keenness of his intellect, the proof lies broadcast in his
writings. His unique mastery, from the moment he entered upon
public life, over the English language, such as few, if any, natives of
this country have attained, is all the more inexplicable, remembering
that he is not an alumnus of any of our colleges, and is not at all
a man of books. His mastery of pure Gujarati is equally remarkable,
and I have been often set a-thinking, with the example of our friend
before me, whether it may not be possible to find out the secret of
mental constitution which enables a person to arrive, by an infinitely '
shorter route than the educational machinery in vogue supplies, to !
some of the highest mental attainments. It is not simply the facility
of expression that I am referring to, but also what I have come to
consider as the intuitive grasp of the most salient points of the ques-
tions which come before him. He goes straight to the heart of
a subject. It is, I am sure, mainly to the effective service of his
intellect, through the medium of the English language, that he owes
the success he has obtained as out and out the foremost of our social
re ormers. To that success a combination of other qualities has also
helped, namely, a strong common sense, enabling him to arrange and
manage his modus operands, self-humility, which makes him keep
himself m the background and put forth no claim to recognition;
a appy vein o umour, which, in union with a sympathetic nature,
prevents his efforts from degenerating into mere censoriousness, and
which, at times, is only next door to pathos, the incongruity pro-

L

146

Supplement.

voting the humour leading him straight to a pathetic estimate of the
situation, never to scorn; a spirit of self-sacrifice, which confines his
personal expenses within rigorous bounds, only the better to enable
him to relieve distress and further any good cause ; and a simplicity
which scorns self-indulgence or self-pampering of every kind, and
confines him to the most simple fare, the most simple, not to sav
coarse dress, and the most simple house conveniences, his bedding

d ™L b h Ut h- m “ attreSS ® tretched u P° n a rudimentary bedstead
devised by himself, or upon the bare floor.

And now for the highest trait in the character of our friend. It is

| habltuaJ i *ough by no means painless, suppression of the’ lower

1 , ef ° re , the . hlgber nature > the enforced subjection of selfish desires to

I rU ! e0f n ° htconduct from a sense of duty. It was from the date
of a crisis m his life, which resulted in the victory of his higher nature

hat I have watched the steady growth of his spiritual and intellectual’

“ e ; the matunt y Of Which is now apparent to all who have the
benefit of his intimacy. He gives bountifully from his slender store •
has declined a fortune, honours, titles, and worldly position. He has

and^ T1 S * e tmSted referee ° f men ° f the highest Portions, in
d out of the country, on questions of moment and delicacy; and

his mediation has been sought for or accepted in emergencies of

grave misunderstanding or difference between the rulers and the ruled

Dreading all ceremony and the pomp and circumstance of riches he

loves to associate with the poor and the lowly-minded, and would

sooner be at the bedside of the sick and the dying than at a wedding

ZJj\T UI t K Part7- ° Ur friend 13 tenderbe arted and humble^
nded, though by no means careless of the esteem of others. I have

seen him take home a forsaken dog from the street and adopt him

pay e ancestral debts of a poor honest servant, and rise from his seat

a lamn P T T- Z° to Stand ° n when

* w P ’ gh and l0W) Cal1 u P° n him on affa irs public and

p ate. He never spares himself, but when unable to stand the

tricked V t0 v S " bUrban P lace > t0 which > of course, he is- soon
t acked. You should see what he amusingly calls his office. It is

mgy little place, an otla (veranda), ten by six, with two old

c airs, a narrow old writing-desk and bare floor. Here people come

the S H.v!Tr Tr d 6 the bearer of a begging-letter, to

British°P C JUdge ° r Member 0f Council > the Indian Raja or the

i 4 7

Supplement .

It would be no disparagement of such a character to say, as the
fact is, that he is not a man of society or of sociable habits. He is
reserved and sometimes moody, and is preoccupied before strangers.
He is so shy that he will not get into a carriage of any pretension,
unless the hood is up or it is dark. At times he is sorely puzzled
with a world not moving to his mind. All this is but the penalty of
an excessive sensibility. He is conscious of these defects, and
blames himself for being unable to get the better of them. For all

this, Mr. Malabari has the grip of a Howard or a Wilberforce, his
literary performances apart.

I must not omit one more peculiarity. My friend sometimes goes
out with his family for a change. He then takes with him a colony
of connexions, not omitting an acquaintance or two into the bargain.
He wants to be alone and recruit himself, you see I But, then, what
right has he to prefer himself to others ? He pays a tremendous bill,
caring not to look into it. Such is the man !

INDEX

4-

A.

6 Active Duty/ poem on, 134.
Addison, 30.

Age of Consent Bill, 128, 129.

Aj a , Frau, mother of Goethe, 25.

, Anubhavika (Experiences in Life),
134 .

Arnold, Dr., quoted, 13.

Augustine, St., 29.

B.

Baring, Sir Evelyn (afterwards
Lord Cromer), 92, 99.

Bentinck, Lord, 12, 13.

Bhabha, Dr., 80.

Bhikhibai, mother of Malabari, 22;
married to Merwanji Malabari,
24; her death, 28.

Bhils, the, 20, 21.

Bombay Review , the, 89, 104.
Bombay University, Matriculation
Examination, 37, 38; its successes
and failures, 63, 64.

Bright, John, praises Malabari’s
verses, 65.

British government of India, criti-
cism of, 100-102; hesitancy of, 126.
Buckingham, Silk, 83.

C.

Cameron, Hay, Duties of Britain
to India , 13, 15.

Caste in India, 117.

Christianity in India, influence of,
73-78, 81.

Clapham Sect, the, 19.

D.

Dhanjibhai Mehta, 20.

‘ Disloyal Grumbler/ verses to, 67.
Dixon, Rev. William, 35, 36, 37.

E.

Eastern affairs, general ignorance
of, amongst Europeans, 1.

Education, system of, in India,

10-19; effects of, 14-16; spread
of, 1 17.

Ellenborough, Lord, unfavourable
to European education, 15.

Elphinstone, Mountstuart, minute
on Education, 10 ; opposed to
freedom of the press, 84.

English language, rapid progress of,
in India, 42, 43.

English rule in India, results of,
6-19; reforms under, 92; dis-
trust of, and opposition to, 94-
95 J press criticism of, 98-102.

Experiences of Life, 41.

F.

Framji, Mr. Ardasir, extract from
letter, 144-147.

I 5°

Index.

G.

Gdthds, the, 79.

Gidumal, Mr. Dayaram, 129.

Girasias, the, 20.

Gladstone, Mr., appoints Lord
Ripon Viceroy, 91, 92.

Grant, Charles, quoted, 9.

Gujarat and the Gujaratis , 89,
103-109, 133.

Gujarati language, 41, 46; its two
dialects, 56-59; adapted to sing-
ing, 58.

H.

Hastings, Marquis of, 21.

History, Indian literature barren
of, 2.

Hunter, Sir William, 113.

I.

Ilbert Bill Controversy, 98.

India, religions of, 3 ; England’s
rule in, beneficent, 5-10 ; system
of education in, 10-19; ver-
nacular literature, 42 ; influence
of Christianity in, 76-78; jour-
nalism in, 83-85; Lord Ripon
succeeds Lord Lytton as Vice-
roy, 91 ; political activity in, 91-
96; criticism of British govern-
ment of, 100— 102 ; social reform
in, 114-118; position of women
in, ix8~I2o; marriage customs
of, 120-128; the Age of Consent
Act, 128-130.

Indian Eye on English Life , 131-
133 -

Indian Muse in English Garb , 65,
133 .

Indian Problem, The, 134, 135.

Indian Spectator, the, 85-89, 96, 97,

104.

Infant-marriages, 90, 120-126,

Islam, religions of, 4.

J.

Jehangier, Sir Cawasji, 54, 88.

Jersey, Countess of, extract from
letter, 143.

Journalism in India, 83-85.

K.

Karsandas Mulji, strives against
caste, 1 16.

Khialis, itinerant bards, 26.

Kipling, Mr. Rudyard, 107.

Keshub Chunder Sen, 77, 112.

L.

Lansdowne, Lord, passes the Age
of Consent Bill, 128.

Lyall, Sir Alfred, Asiatic Studies
quoted, 17.

Lytton, Lord, Viceroy, disastrous
policy of, 91.

M.

Macaulay, minute on Education,
12, 13; favours freedom of the
press, 84.

Malabari, Behramji, early life of, 20-
23 ; his mother, 22-25 ; death of,
28 ; school-days, 34-38 ; literary
training, 39, 40; early literary
efforts, 41-46 ; introduction to
Dr. John Wilson, 46; to Sir
Cawasji Jehangier and Mr. Mar-
tin Wood, 54; publication of
Niti-Vinod, 54; account of the
book, 55-59; marriage, 60; fails
to matriculate, 63 ; writes verses
in English, 64 ; Indian Muse in
English Garb, 65-69, 133; Wil-
son’s influence, 70-74; religious
views, 74-80 ; Wilson Virah, 81;
begins his career as journalist,
83 ; the Indian Spectator, 85-88,
90, 96- X02 ; the Bombay Review,
88, 89 ; Gujarat and the Guja-

Index.

1 5 1

ratis , 89, 103-109, 133 ; poem on
‘Duty,’ 91; Ilbert Bill Contro-
versy, 98 ; proposal to translate
Max Muller’s Hibbert Lectures
into Indian vernaculars, 110-113 ;
approved by Sir William Hunter,
1 13 ; efforts for social reform,
114-119; for raising the status
of women, 117; sympathy with
Hindu society, 123; Notes on
Infant Marriage, 125 ; Appeal to
the Women of England, 127 ;
the Age of Consent Act, 128 ;
visits to England, 13 1 ; The
Indian Eye on English Life,
I 3 1~I33 ; Anubhavika, 134 ; The
Indian Problem , 135 ; his work
and character, 135-141 ; testi-
monies to these, 1 43-147.

Malabari, Merwanji, 24.

Marriage in India, 60-62, 1 19-123 ;
customs of, 120-128.

Mehta, Dhanjibhai, 20.

Missionary efforts in India, 8-10,
36 ; among the Parsis, 51.

Miiller, Prof. Max, on the Indian

Muse, 65 ; his Hibbert Lectures,
110-113,

N.

Newspaper, the first in India, 83.
Nightingale, Miss Florence, wel-
comes the Indian Muse , 66; on
social reform in India, 115 ; on
influence of women, 118.

Niti- Vmod, publication of, 54 ■
criticism of, 55-59.

P.

Parsis, position and influence of,

49-52 ; female education, 60-62 '
Pindaris, the, 20.

R.

Rajendralala Mitra, 112.

Religions of India, 3; compared
with Western, 4, 5.

Religions of Islam, fundamental
ideas of, 4.

Ripon, Lord, Viceroy of India, 91,

9 2 i 95 9 friendship with Mala-
bari, 97.

S.

Scott, Sir John, on Malabari, 14,
143 -

Self-sacrifice, idea of, in East and
West, 1-5.

Shaftesbury, Lord, praises MaJa-
bari’s verses, 65.

Smith, G., Conversion of India,
extract from, 9.

T.

Taleyarkhan, Mr. Ferozesha Pes-
tonji, 85.

Taylor, Rev. J. van S., 46.

Telang, Mr. Justice, 120.

Tennyson, compliments Malabari,
65.

W.

Wedderburn, Sir William, extract
from letter, 144.

Wilson, Dr. John, 46-54 ; death of,

69; his influence on Malabari,

70-74.

Wilson, Prof. H. H., n.

IVilson Virah, 81.

Women, education and position of,
in India, 119-130.

Wordsworth, William, Malabari’s
verses to, 69.

Wood, Mr. Martin, 54, 88, 89, no.

z.

Zoroastrianism, 3, 78, 79.

i

CARLYLE’S UNPUBLISHED LECTURES

ON

EUROPEAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE.

Edited by Mr. R. P. Karkaria, B.A.

44 -

‘Mr. Karkaria’s extremely able Introduction brings before us with
admirable lucidity the two opinions which are the guiding lines of these
lectures, the necessity of belief for true progress and culture, and the
“well-known view that all great things are unconscious”.— Guardian,
London, 1892.

‘ In the last lecture there is much true Carlyle. When he writes of
Goethe, one feels at once that the main subject is his own, and that he
instructs out of the fulness of knowledge. Two theories distinctly run
and connect the course of lectures, and we cannot do better than quote
these lines from the Introduction of Mr. Karkaria. 5 — Spectator, London,
1892.

‘But for Mr. Karkaria’s industry these lectures would still be lying
submerged among the dingy records of the Bombay Asiatic Society. . .
It is a notable mark of Mr. Karkaria’s triumph over the characteristic
touches, not of mere idiom but of literary instinct which they reveal, and
of the intrinsic soul of sympathy with which he edits his work, that it
would puzzle the wariest critic to discern wherein his style and the
direction of his thought are distinguishable from British standards.’—
Catholic Examiner , Bombay, 1892.

c Of the two simultaneous first publications of what Mr. R. P. Karkaria
calls Carlyle’s posthumous work, we prefer that which this gentleman has
himself edited. . . It is also to Mr. Karkaria’s credit as an editor that
he leaves his reader in no doubt as to the real character and authenticity
of those lectures.’ — St. Ja?nes > s Gazette .

‘We now come to Mr. Karkaria’s Introduction, which is admirably
written in a modest, sympathetic and scholarly fashion. . . As a rule
the editorial work is most carefully done .’ — Times of India , 1892.

‘ Mr. Karkaria has done his work as editor with an ability and good
taste which prove that he thoroughly deserved his good fortune in making

Mr. Malabari’s Literary Works

—

To be had at the Voice of hidia Office, Bombay.

Proceeds to be devoted to Social Reform,

NITI-VINOD. — GUJARATI.

Second Edition .

(. Extracts from some Press opinions)

ffl r fUSe ! nt ? ^ Eastem mind something of the lofty tone of thought
U ' b,ch dlstln guishes the most approved literary productions of
e West, is what the clever young author has attempted in these pages. . .

tearL e J> nCe r- COnS1 t e fv Ie ori S inalit y and reflect a lofty tone of moral
teaching. — Ti?nes of India, 1875 and 1876.

JffV of the . master y w hich even Parsis can acquire over a language
IC 1 _ ey lave either been too idle or too unfitted by nature to adopt
after vamlystrmng to do so for twelve centuries.’— Indian States, nan, 1875!

GaJtfte ^876 an<1 6XeCUti0n ° f th ® work are ori ? ina l and bold.’— Bombay
‘ There has been no genuine poet amongst the Parsis up to this time

s^h ^-rL7^}^T and beautiful verses on various interestin?

• andT^Lf 1 fTu n r metreS Seem t0 US *° be faultless in their construction ;
“ 1 u f he lmes sm00th and S racefuL • • Some passages are really

a nainter 8 ’ heS ^V del L : - ' ° ther Iines the author displays the powers of
a painter. — Vidya Mitra , 1875. *

THE INDIAN MUSE IN ENGLISH GARB, AND OTHER
* My Dear Sir, ENGLIS H VERSES.

I return my best thanks for your Indian Muse in English Garb

ma^edT StmS ’ v nd ,-T° re than interestin ^ t0 see how well you have
managed m your English garb.

vemSL^ C for ld i r l ad J he P 0 ?* !*** >’° U have written in your own
them by tL papers they deserve a11 ^ praise bestowed upon

Believe me, your far-away but sincere friend
1878. . ’

A. Tennyson . 5

Mr. Malabar? $ Literary Works.

1 Depend upon it, the English public, at least the better part of it,
likes a man who is what he is. The very secret of the excellence of
English literature lies in the independence, the originality and truth-
fulness of English writers. . . In the verses where you feel and speak

like a true Indian you seem to me to speak most like a true poet. Accept
my best thanks and good wishes, and believe me,

Yours sincerely,

x878> F. Max Muller.’

£ “ To the Missionaries of Faith,” with its appended note, the note on
Zoroaster, p. 94 — I have read with the greatest interest. . . The

“ Sketch ” or Memoir is very striking ; so are the “ Stages of a Hindu
Female Life.” . . May God bless your labours! May the Eternal

Father bless India, bless England, and bring us together as one family,
doing each other good. May the fire of His love, the sunshine of His

countenance, inspire us all !

jg 7 g t Florence Nightingale/

‘ You have such a cloud of witnesses to the excellence of the work,
the high character of its poetry and its sentiments, and to the proof
of singular ability, in such a mastery by a Foreigner, of the English
language, that any favourable opinion of mine would be but a drop in the

ocean.

1879-

Shaftesbury/

£ Your lines to Wordsworth prove that you have found your way
into the secret of perhaps the deepest poetic influence of this century,
and I rejoice to learn that his profound teachings thus make their
way into wholly new modes of thought and feeling with penetrating

sympathy.

jg»g_ J. Estlin Carpenter.’

< it is a gratification to myself, which I cannot forego, to hail the appear-
ance of a true poet and master-mind in India.

l88o _ Edward B. Eastwick.’

< a gifted young Parsee. The sonnets were written in memory of the
late Princess Alice, and breathe a pathos and sympathy very warm and
deep. There are, we think, some indications in it of the immaturity of
the writer’s powers ; but we cannot but admire the noble picture he has
drawn of what seems to be his ideal of womanly excellence. Bombay

Gazette, 1879.

‘ Mr. Malabari appears to be a man of great individuality of character and
talent, and endowed with keen poetical instincts .’— Madras Athenaeum
and Daily News , 1879.

Mr. Malab ari’s Literary Works . g

m ‘ ^ he le “ er M r- Makbari received from the Princess Alice in ackno wledge-

“ work had such . an effect on him, that on the recent death of
m ' ab e accomplished lady, he embalmed her memory in a
beautiful English sonnets. A copy of the sonnets forwarded to
•M. the Queen has elicited two warm messages of thanks and apprecia-
ble ^L!“ pliment t0 the poet ’ s genius and cl “’-

esZrr H°ffl id i erabIe v ngbal P ° Wer - 11 would be hard t0 over-
estimate the difficulties which throng around the native writer who

ments oTfu Pt a th ° UshtS to the ri ^ d a * d circumscribed require-

niceties of ifs WI * “f . P ° Verty in rh ymes, and all the refined

niceties of its metrical forms, which, while they help real genius are

stumbling-stones m the path of the unsifted Tn w/n +• ? ^ ' 6

the memory of the Princess Alice o„r nnll t' 1 h,s P oet]cal tribute to

the daintiest as it L fif Ai ’ poe£ has P oured hls thoughts into

mJTmXI 879. m ° St artlfida1 ’ ° f 311 ° Ur lyrical moulds ’-

fin7fficture e of h Enrf C T d6d ' m dr ^' m Z’ in elo q uent English verse, a very
f bom poet England s popular Princess. Mr. Malabari seem^ to b^

progress 3 of his" ™ f EJS ° takeS keen mterest in the moral and social
f 1 ,. . ountryinen; and his earnest and manly endeavours in

E„" iTZf, T <■>« of nd Z Z

i — - - «

he' has ztx by ” b h e ‘ spta,ion ” “ d au

wnTt^r IV J uibcnmmate truly between what is worthy and un-

What he writes^ 1 power . of ^ enthusiastic admiration and friendship. .

. H “ — - of the a 8 e’

equal to those before us ’ Tm / \ f >V P oems wr, tten by an Indian
1878. -Journal of the National Indian Association,

is simply incredible, and we

..selfid, devotion.’A, mrita I JTrSS, S”f ““ P “ ri0 '"“

WILSON- VIRAH.— GUJARATI.

Vinod] and^f^rigblfthorTt^ If S ’“ pI f r and more rac y than of Niti-
exDressinn thoughts, descriptive power and genuine noetic

expression reflect credit on the author’s genius ’-Jam-e-fSZI, SyT

no wonder. For Mr^M^bari’s^ ^ ParS1S ’ b . Ut admin ’ n g Hindus. And
purest of the pure. But whe ^f, 15 not onIy P a re, it is the
keen appreciation of Natme h i 1S “° bIe sent5ments and his

him. Even his prose partakes f ff y makeS US think very highly of
1 878. P Partak6S ° f the nature of Poetry.’- Gujarat Mitra,

4

Mr, Malabar? s Literary Works.

4 As a divine, savant , and philanthropist, the poet describes his hero in
eulogistic terms, but in artistic style. The lines evince great mastery of
language. . . The language is melodious, and the narrative is enriched
with similes, metaphors, and other poetic characteristics . 5 — Indian Daily
News , 1878.

SAROD-I-ETTEFAK.— GUJARATI.

4 The best harmony and the best poetical spirit. . . When it is seen
that many of these verses were written some fifteen years ago, it will be
granted that Mr. .Malabari was born with all the powers of a first-rate
\ poet. The fire of Religion, the aspirations of Love, the strengthening
! of Virtue, the yearning after Friendship, and contempt of this false
| World . . . these subjects have been treated in spontaneous language
and in metres that could be rendered into music. . . What heart will

not overflow with enthusiasm and delight by a perusal of the dramatic
romance, “ Pdkdaman ” (Lady Chastity) and 44 Shah Nargesh” (Prince Nar-
cissus) ? . . . The lines on Fortune may adorn the musician’s art and
may breathe hope into those who are discontended with their lot. 44 Bioga
Bilap 5 ’ and 44 Prabbu Prarthna” will prove refreshing to two intoxicated
souls — the love-intoxicated and the faith-intoxicated. . . These noble

lines will work powerfully upon the singer as well as the hearer. . .In
short, the highest forms of poetry abound in these verses, and they are
sure to fascinate the student of Nature with their deep meditative spirit
like that of Wordsworth or Milton.’ — The Gujarati , 1882.

4 Some of the poems are as finished as a beautiful picture. . . Many
of them, being songs, will be a cherished treasure to the lover of music.
... The description beginning with page 11 is so life-like, that it
excites terror; but the writer seems to have used consummate art in
managing his language. . . The portrait of beauty is very pure and

I vivid. Almost all the pieces evince deep love of Nature and her Maker ;

| whilst some of the verses hide such a depth of meaning as could be
| fathomed only by a reader gifted with poetic instincts. . . Manly

j dignity, grace and melody, these are the peculiar merits of our young
| poet. He writes with reckless freedom ; but like a true poet, keeps
| within bounds. In the treatment of religious subjects he evinces an
I intensely devout and meditative spirit. There are faults too in the work —
immaturity, haste and abrupt terminations.’— Bombay Chro 7 iicle , 1882.

‘Though composed some fifteen years ago, and though 44 the dim
pictures of my childhood’s experiences,” these verses display a poet’s
powers. . . We observe evidences of the writer’s high powers at every

step. . . Pleasing, appropriate and affecting. . . The delicacy of

feeling essential to a poet is not hard to find in Mr. Malabari .’ — Dnyan
Vardhak .

Mr. Malabari" s Literary Works.

r—

O

GUJARAT AND THE GUJARATIS.

Third Edition.

* Many bright descriptions of native home life and customs. The
author writes English with remarkable ease. . . Mr. Malabari

sketches boldly, and has a satirical pen. . . Apart from the entertain-

ment which it furnishes, there is much to be learnt from his book
regarding both the merits and demerits of our rule in Hindustan as
seen from the native point of view/ — Daily News, London, 1883.

‘Sparkling series of sketches of Indian men and manners. . . The
different castes and races are described with a skill and a humour that
never fail. The author unlifts the veil from several ugly spots in our
Indian Empire, but without even a dash of ill-humour or race antagonism.

* . . Out of his own moral consciousness he evolves a fund of humour
and of fun ; he points out abuses by no means attributable to the English,
and now and then shows up things which the rulers would do well to con-
sider and take to heart. But the most striking thing about the book is
the completeness with which Mr. Malabari sees through the English.
The Marwari, the Bora, the Hajam, the Vaqil, he describes from the
outside ; but the Englishman, whom he does not set to work to describe,
he seems to enter into as if he had been born within the sound of Bow
Bells/ — Vanity Fair, London, 1883.

‘The remarks which he makes upon the relations of the two races are
few but outspoken, and whether the reader agrees with them or not, he
cannot disallow the complete honesty and ingenuousness of the author.

\ * • Tbe book gives original ideas and vivid pictures of Indian native
life, worthy of consideration. . . That Mr. Malabari expresses the f
genuine native opinion on certain questions there is no reason to doubt.
His words might be read with advantage by Government officials, high
and low, engaged in the immense work of administering the affairs & of
Hindustan/ — Morning Post , London, 1883.

After the production of this book no one need say that Indians are
reticent as to their social and domestic affairs, or in the least shy in
expressing their opinion on their European governors. There is a
charming frankness throughout the whole book which cannot fail to win
the approbation of every reader ; and this is happily accompanied by

a pleasing witticism which precludes all suspicion of ill-natured carping *

Overland Mail, London, 1883.

/ ‘ Mr ‘ Malabari’s English style is remarkably good, and seldom exhibits
any want of ease. His book is of special interest as throwing some light
/on the real feeling of the natives with regard to their British rulersS-
Daily Telegraph, London, 1883.

Mr. Malabari's Literary Works .

A Parsi writer, honourably known as a journalist of oA

Mjh, «nd s

point is their genuine humour. . . The sinceritv wl-nVK «. * notable

ta, the gift of ho m i,

possesses, already, an intimate knowledge of native life and 9 ‘ p
mstght which is not to be deceived by appearances/ ’ * ***

Mr I 1 ? 11 , thrown 0n m °dem native life, by such writers as

Mr Behramji Malaban, that the vast gulf, which separated A

and degraded Hinduism of the present day from the antique type cante
justly appreciated. The author has no wish to exalte I P ’ f

soundT I?" 4 faU ° V6r tWS P3rt ° f WS SUb J eCt > but ^ ^ too hone t “and
sound a literary artist to entirely omit them, and he deserves eAtl aZ

for a moderate and yet unflinching tone of veracitv ’ rvv> 7 A redl 4
Gazette, Lahore, 1883. S ty ' -<W and Militaiy

‘Evidently the production of a conscientious writer, who reproduce
with charming simplicity and naivete such thoughts and idea d
t emselves to his mind.’— Westminster Review, London, 1883. S SUg?eSt

With singular tact, and a ready flow of wit he natcpo
chief people in the country, and analyses Sr actions and T ^
with considerable freedom. . . A vein of irony runs throui theTooT
which is especially apparent when discussing modern improvement^’
Army and Navy Magazine , London, 1883. P ments.

‘Mr. Makbari’s^ pictures of men and manners in Gujardt have that
greatest of all ments-the merit of being drawn from the point of view of
a candid native. . . Altogether, the volume has somewhattte effect of an
album of photographs, hot always very pleasing, but, without fxceotLn
extremely real ..'-British Quarterly Review, London, 1883. P ’

‘A carter speaks sweetly to his bullock, and we have no idea that the
’ Persuasive tones say, “Go on, bullock of my heart so on tbv mnth * &

.■ w m “f we cannot goc,, , h „ he

? S? ’ S Zi° h ” ” t ‘“ y wid ” er - y ” *» «'

strong vein of h'nntonn *

r™S i „°'"n7” riid h m *T“ 1S ' “f“' d tke book ieSl nfS
rang H.ri Whkl °““ “ rf “ P “ d «'

facultvTtf aVe d g t y ’ 1 fr ° m liv6lyt0 severe : ” there is scarcely am

a more or tl f ® WAer ° f this work does not possess ir

a more or less eminent degree. . . The sketches of men and thinv.

Gujardti, which form the bulk of the volume, are vivid life-pictures fuHo'
humour and animation, as fresh as could he A , Pictures, full ol

nnlitiV*! , s C0UI<1 be * * * Displays an extent oi

writer ii Indf h soc | al ^nd literary aptitude which no other single
writer m India has yet displayed. . . His love of truth bums strong

Mr . Malabari s Literary Works .

7

in almost every page, the feeling becomes almost a passion when the
writer is “ intense, 33 to use his own word. Few English readers will be
able to understand how the heart is being torn asunder by its intense
suffering while the hand is busy mercilessly tearing up the veil from the
face of vice, hypocrisy, and superstition, as exemplified by caste and its
concomitant evils l— Indian Mirror , Calcutta, 1883.

* Tlle sufferings incident to child-marriage, the girl being older than the
husband, are indicated in what is at once the most skilfully-drawn and
curious episode in the work, entitled “An Aryan Idyll” . . The con-

eluding passages of the “Aryan Idyll” are instinct with the truest pathos. 5 —
Allens Indian Mail, London, 1883.

/ The same facility of word-painting, sly humour, and genuine liberality

of view that characterised the book in its original form. 5 — The Scotsman ,
I004. ?

‘ On the subject of these relations, Mr. Malabari discourses with notable

penetration, candour, and impartiality. He acknowledges the treat

superiority of the British method of government over the prece^din-r

native regimes m respect of security and educational opportunities.*— Afcw
York Sun, 1884.

‘While thus bantering in the tone he adopts when speaking of the
tendency of some natives to earn cheap honours by toadying to their
European superiors, Mr. Malabari is pitilessly stem in describing the

kZ tC Tl n Su ° f prinCes ’ es P eciaI1 y if *ey happen to be of the

type of Mulharao Guickowar. T he spirit of the Indian reformer runs

.the whole work.’- — Catholic Examiner, 1884. ~ —

‘As we read his descriptions of these characters, they seem to start into

1 e and to walk before us. The barber particularly makes our flesh creep
on our bones. — The Liberal, 1884. P

A book in the pages of which we trace the master hand of a loving son
01 India. Gujarat and the Gujardtis is the very first book of its

kina. It has the advantage of having a native for its author. . . There
is scarcely a phase of the mind which is not exhibited in its pages, but
the author throughout shows that he is the master, and never the slave of
his emotions. — The Hindu, Madras, 1884.

' t ‘ w tt6n in a and graceful manner and ^ replete with humorous
touches. . . His views on public matters appear to be sin°-u]arlv
enlightened. — Madras Mail, 1884. Singularly

‘The sketches given are vivid and picturesque, and are suffused with

thlm with a nf , T Whkh ’ S6t ° ff “ a Cl6ar ’ fordbIe s ‘y Ie ’ Rothes
Took A mter f St • • An0ther trait which characterizes the

pages and patriotism which runs through its

8

Mr. Malabar? s Literary Works .

It is written in a sprightly vein, and one is sometimes not certain if the
author wishes to be taken seriously or not. . . This book is quite
a gallery of pictures of the men in Western India who have any marked

‘ A thousand times more valuable than those dry dissertations on the
abits, character, and manners of the natives, with which the English
reading public has been so long satisfied. The style of the book is lively

happt's" g v’eins Th ’ 8 “? “ many places of Sir Ali Baba^s

happiest veins Tne wntter is truly a humorist in the best sense of the

ord. . All these are graphic portraits with the unmistakable linea-
ments of truth, and tell us much more of native life than your bulky
gazetteers and heavy books of travel. As for “week-day preaching ” the
volume before us contains many original observations, many incisive
sayings, and many stirring exhortations.’ — Sindh Times, 1884.

‘Mr. Malabari’s book is unique of his kind. It presents a picture of the

tflTri d[ G t r&t ' and ° f th6ir different customs and habta-
and the tact and the literary skill used in describing them are such that

hey not only embellish the original subjects, but also serve, to a meat

extent, the purpose of a novel. . His pictures are effective and humoLs

• • . It is a century now since the British have been ruling nv.r '

country: but they have not as yet acquired an adequate knowled^of the

social customs and usages of the natives. Books like the one unfer

review are, therefore, a help and a guide to Europeans in order to

amiharize them with those customs and usages, and also to encourage

social intercourse between them and the natives .’-Bombay Samachtr,

’j

.'Mr- M alabari writes English not only well, but with humour and
picturesquely. . . The book is pleasant, spirited, and readable' with

*•** “ rod “ d T

Its language is remarkable for its brilliant strokes, its vigour and

Mr S Ma7h° f St - y e ’r d 1S 1 T ery idiomatic -a little too much sometimes
Mr. Malaban is, above all, a poet .’— Revue Critique , 1884.

‘ In spite of Oriental solecisms, Mr. Malabari’s English is on the whnln

.T=“r y ’* nd ;,*■

peculiar charm. . . It is obvious that Mr. Malabari has a real sense

the eSe ° descripti ° ns and incidents are laughable in

of h :ri-; 7 t re f eSh '” g Cand0Ur of this account indicates one
charms of the book. The same candour is displayed in all Mr

1884 1 “ ’ St “ Cl " of Ina “ sodal “ d rel'Sioni liV-CalM,* Rmrn,

,he ,iul M “ <,nesao “

Mr. Malabari’ s Literary Works.

Through 3.11 the fearlessness of his denunciation of vices, his intense
sympathy with the Hindu and Mahomedan population, no less than with
his co-religionists, is never out of sight. His perception of the defects of
the rulers of the country does not blind him to their good qualities.

The book teems with lessons for the European and the native, the ruler
and the ruled, for the orthodox and conservative native, and the native
reformer, sham or true, for the missionary, the statesman, the judge, the
merchant, the British elector, and the Indian tax-payer. It is a book
that none but a native could have written, and no native but one with the
special qualifications and great command of English possessed by the
author. His solecisms are few and far between, and tend only to add
a picturesque ruggedness to his otherwise smoothly-rounded periods/ —
Madras Mail, 1889.

Mr. Malabari has much keen graphic power, and a strong sense of
humour, sometimes amounting to sarcasm ; but the kindliness of his
nature helps to qualify the occasional bitterness of his descriptions. Few
books on India throw such light, in a few words, on the ways and customs
of the people/ — Indian Magazine , 1889.

\

THE INDIAN EYE ON ENGLISH LIFE.

Third Edition.

- Has a keenly observant eye and the gift of humour, and he gives his
j rea ders many vivid sketches of what he saw in the streets and houses of
j England. . . The author not only cleverly sketches the characters of
others, but also reveals his own with the open-hearted candour of a
Rousseau or a Cicero. 3 — Bombay Gazette , 1893.

Intense originality and human interest. . . Every one remembers
M. Taine’s striking inference as to the respect felt for the English father
from the fact that the young Englishman invariably speaks of him as “ the
Governor. 33 Mr. Malabari, who might have been forgiven half a dozen
flights of genius of this sort, has in that respect been happier than the
illustrious author of Letters from England , so secure is he in a thoroughly
idiomatic English, and is no stranger even to the English that is heard
within sound^ of Bow Bells. The book is, as we have said, decidedly
original, and is strongly impressed with the personality of its author.' He
manages— though it must have been a great effort to him— to keep his
work as a social reformer in the background ; but, as in India he has
been accustomed to see the State mainly in the home, so in England the
home life of the people claims much more of his attention than our
politics, our literature, or our intellectual life. His observations are as
a rule singularly correct. . .

‘Like the Athenaeum , the Saturday Review has a long and highly
appreciative notice of Mr. Malabari’s new book. The former thinks Mr.
Malabari’s account of English home life to be beautiful, and that Rudyard

IO

Mr. Malabari’s Literary Works.

Kipling himself has never done anything better than the narrative of the
cheap-jaek fleecing his customers outside the Crystal Palace. According

li fr ttf+l 7 Revte ™> Mr. Malabari studies every branch of English
hfe with the calm, modest, discriminating attention of one anxious to get
at the truth on every occasion, and appreciate its bearings on the prob-
lems of Indian society. As regards the relations of Englishmen and
n lans, r. Malabari, according to the Review, speaks with excellent
good sense, good taste and dignity, and that such work could not fail to
be of inestimable^ value, showing that on the gravest and most important
topics the author is m close sympathy with all that is best among English-

‘It is a hopeful sign of the times that the principal native papers of
India appreciate the scope and object of Mr. Malabari’s book on Eng lish
life and manners. The Hindu of Madras, for example, has read the
book with the greatest delight, and considers the author to be not only
a philosopher but also a true poet, albeit he writes in prose. The Indian
zrror o Calcutta, on the other hand, observes the same bright in-
eihgence, penetration sincerity of purpose, and independence, observable
in this volume, which were so much admired in Guzerat, and which
secured a European reputation for its author. Mr. Malabari’s loyalty
o truth is truly refreshing. . . But so kindly is his spirit of criticism

• a i , VIC T nS ’ h . owever much they may wince at first, will end by joining
thJ , laUgh *P mst th emselves. Looking at its varied contents, says
the Mirror, this is a book for the reformer, the statesman, and the
philanthropist. — limes of India , 1893.

The London Times welcomes Mr. Malabari’s Indian Eye on English
ife as a remarkable volume of travels and experiences in England! It
a -tvf th f f Mr ‘ MaJabarl understands our language perfectly, and writes it '

gf , a f0rce and . sk l 1] . which man y a native (English) writer might envy.
He observes with a friendly, but not uncritical eye. . . In conclusioT,

Times says that the book is m reality what Montesquieu’s Lettres
ersanes and other literary apologues only pretended to be. Mr. Malabari

camions T r L US ’ and sometimes his criticisms are, perhaps, a little
captious. But he writes, on the whole, with a kindly pen, and gives us

a mre opportunity of seeing ourselves as others see us .’—Bombay Gazette,

Judged from his book, he sGfm? tn o ji _t_*i ■»

whose vi have been m^H L3S

, 1U “ an natUre - He chines the gentleness of «Ie

of tlfnlZ r ^ ° f . EmiIe Souvestre with acute observation
or Max O Rell. Indian Daily JVews } 1894.

to Tht 6 al°w b f h ? rew , d and s y m P at hetic in fact, it does equal credit

criticism?;^® h f d heart - and the tone of its comments and
t cisms is happily neither ecstatic nor fulsome, but on the contrary,
manly and. frank. — The Speaker , 1893.

Mr. Malabari 9 s Literary Works .

ii

‘It will be seen that the author possesses no ordinary degree of
susceptibility. He caught, as it were, the key of Venice, and unlocked
the poetry of her canals in the course of a single evening ! It is only,
however, when he reaches London that we get the full benefit of all that
Mr. Malabari’s eye recorded and his imagination painted. On the whole
he enjoyed himself, and thinks not unkindly of the land which has adopted
him; but that does not prevent him from giving forth a great deal of
interesting criticism .’ — The Englishman , 1893.

‘ So much genuine perception of the strong points of European char-
acter, combined with such clear-sightedness in dealing with what we
ourselves must admit to be very dark blots on English life. For European
energy and organization the writer has unmixed praise, and he speaks
with refreshing honesty. . . This abundance of life and energy, and yet
withal of orderliness also, is, of course, the leading impression left on
an Asiatic by a first sight of the streets of London. Another, which will
also be familiar to many an Anglo-Indian on hard-earned furlough, is the
number of women in those streets ; indeed the sex seems to have arrested
the Indian eye from the first and (small wonder) to have claimed an
| almost unduly large share of attention. Observations on English women
abound throughout the book, and those of us who are apt to resent any
1 alien criticism on the fairer half of the people of England should be dis-
j armed by the admiring sincerity with which it is expressed. . . Mr. Malabari
! is, as we all know, the most prominent leader in the cause of prevention
of infant marriage, which he rightly regards as one of the most deleterious
1 that can be named. But, he says, if he were asked to choose between

I drunkenness and that, he would keep to his own national custom. . . The
parts of the book which deal with English home life and marriage are
perhaps the best, and nowhere is the author’s moderation and insight
alike more apparent .’ — The Pioneer , 1894.

£ Mr. Malabari’s book is drawing to itself much attention on the
Continent. In a review in the Journal des Debats M. Augustin Filon
attempts a very ingenious, and, upon the whole, accurate appreciation of
the book, while at the same time he throws an interesting side-light on the
personality of the author, whom he introduces as “A Grandson of
Zoroaster.” M. Filon may be himself recognised as guide, philosopher
and friend to the late Prince Imperial, since whose death in Zululand he
has preferred, like the Empress Eugenie, to live beyond the Channel,
mixing with the best elements in English life. He may, therefore, be
presumed to combine the critical appreciation of the English with the
mother-wit of the French reviewer in estimating a book that has made no
little stir in literary circles. . . “ Gently but invincibly stubborn, at the
| same time .pacific and combative, as behoves an apostle, Mr. Malabari
\ has two languages, two countries, one of which conflicts with the other.
I Quite naturally, he loves, that which suffers. He reasons and talks like
I an Englishman, but he feels like an Indian. He is one of those exceptional

12

Mr. Malabar Vs Literary Works .

whomtheiTd 0 ^? 6 C ° nqUered races become conscious of their defeat, by

a-ain ttt ’ S arrested > whom ‘hey reinstated and put

again on the path of progress. Very beautiful is the life of these men

but bitter, very painful to live. Theirs are voices cry tin the

wilderness. They expiate everv mnm»m +i. • ■ y a tbe

heino- w, , \ P ^ moment of their existence the fault of

comp thT „ ^ t0 ° S ° 0n 5 and yet WI ' th0Ut ‘hem, century to-

Athens asked f deslred and so necessary, would not be born,

thens asked herself why she should obey Rome, and Rome too

superiority?^! t r? aS S ? 6 7idded t0 thS conc l uered ci{ y the Pa'm for

England and t! ^ eaUty ’ and mtellect Verily, the relative situations of
m S m 7 u d 1 dm are quite different - But it will be admitted that
sh??d J? an C “ SbeS and venera -tes the Indian race, noble, refined and

nur!?of?n VS ? ’ ver ' tabIe aristocracy of nations, the mother and
. , 1 civilizations. What are her weaknesses ? Whereby has she

merited her servitude ? He too™ i, be. too ».ll Betfche.W.td

h.w n LTdX° r ' W , h ° ' “* h “ in “* d »* i ctmld he
ow could the secret of his strength be found out except by goino- to and

/Zrofwh?ch he ? S ]k WD C ° Unt 7’ ^ the m!dSt ° f WS ° Wn P e °P le > in tbat

ch he talks so much, and wherein he lives so little ? ” Here

bl^'riS T'l 1 ,h r' VOl "“”- Whi ' h “* French reviewer

° really the book of a writer.” To the English, its sentences mav

“ d “osdltg

one time a t’- popular word to the most refined symbolism, at
escendmg below prose, at another time rising to the height of

i™. p *'Xh f f r f - Fil "; ie *“■= « £%£££

“ I admire it h £ ^ ** Itself ^ expression in a foreign and hostile tongue.

laLuaTand e “ SC °° P \ Chise,S ’ S ives sb ape, and softens this rugged
orm?f te lTf e d SeS ’a n T $hades and Shades, its warmths and
soul iT’an ,, tt ? “ ° ne 6hCate dis <l u fotudes, to which the English •
would not , I T" HC f ° rCeS the WOrds t0 which they

with that snlJtt 67 haVC nSVer Said) . and besides > he invests tbe m
East -.’-Times C ° 1 °' 1T Whkh characterize the gorgeous

no fewer th?n !b E r Clvlb2 ation.” This is M. G. Valbert, who devotes

examination fte volmf ' it ^ f " - ° & Crkical

*i * . • • Mr. Malaban, says his reviewer lovptr

t he w°e U ak^ss!s SS rd atel7 ’ ^ ^ love * clear - si ^ted. He is not blind to
aknesses and miseries of a once noble race which has merited its

d- nThtT 5 v" d he h,! sw ™ “ d '”“ “■“*

h- handed Indi'mr" “„Xd P ' hT] ***?“ ,he d '““ “ f > h «
E„ f » „„r he c.n.ea, £%%£?£

has no likf 15 f nd blames them for being clumsy masters. He
no liking for the indulgent patrons who will neither force nor

Mr. Malabari* s Literary Works .

*3

constrain, and whose smiles expresses good-will mixed with pity.
Mr. Malabari believes he sees in this pity a little of contempt. . . .

M Valbert sees “The Asiatic philosopher” surprised into a state of panic
at* sight of the mad rush of life in England-at the way in which the
people eat, drink, talk, work, and amuse themselves. He pities their
restlessness from the bottom of his heart, even as he admires^ their
freedom and their independence. “Your life is a mad saraband, cries
this wisest and most ironical of Parsis. But has the East found the real
secret of human existence ? asks the West. Unrest is a mark of noble
and progressive races— it is that which has made room for all inventions
and discoveries, all beneficent reforms and innovations. We think it
rather hard on Mr. Malabari to have to go to a French school to learn
the philosophy of effort. Keen idealist as he is, he has shown a very
European activity in some matters, at which even the more progressive of
his countrymen stand aghast. But the reviewer has decidedly the better
of his author when he sets him right in the course of his religious specula-
tions. For instance, Mr. Malabari doubts if it is possible for the
Englishman to be a Christian in the sense of “ Christ’s Christianity.”
M. Valbert retorts that it is scarcely necessary for him to be so, sur-
rounded as he is. In the affairs of this life, religion, after all, is a matter
of adaptation and accommodation. If the Christian ideal does not
always fit in with the rule of conduct in the West, it does not necessarily
imply the state of contradiction too readily assumed by the Eastern
observer. Mr. Malabari has evidently missed this phase of the question.

« The Englishman has for his country the proud attachment which
one has for a lawful wife that makes a great figure in the world.
Mr. Malabari has for his country the tenderness that an adored mistress
inspires, to whom light or morose critics deny justice,. and whose weak-
nesses appear to the smitten heart more attractive and more lovable than
the virtues of other women ”. 5 L>o??ibciy Guzette , 1894*

< A book which has the good fortune to include amongst its admirers
exponents of such diverse contemporary thought as Mr. Herbert Spencer,
Lord Rosebery, and Sir Alfred Lyall. We notice a new chapter on Sex.

. '. The marked originality, which raises incidents and details of every-
day life into subjects of permanent human interest, is seldom to be
mistaken, whilst the keen observation and wise counsel which abound
in its pages testify to the earnestness of the social reformer. ^ This
insight into spiritual problems and the intuitive perception of religious
phenomena are perhaps the chief attractions of the book for thoughtful
Englishmen. . . It is only when the writer comes down to the details
of domestic and social life in England that we find his grasp of the
peculiarities of our robuster civilization relax, and his conclusions become
swee pi n g. This is a serious defect in a guide usually so safe and trust-
worthy. But Mr. Malabari is far from dogmatic in his generalizations.
Open, ingenuous, and, as a rule, careful in handling subjects with which
he is not familiar, he makes allowances for what does not suit his Asiatic

r 4

Mr. Malabar? s Literary Works.

predilections. Even in th** wnrof ■» "" . . ~ ~ ' —

reader rather than offends him the moods he amuses the

own expense. The gift of humour “h sometimes being at his

recognition as a Jiterary artist never fails V*”— hlm out for special
that would wreck some reputations.’-^ *****

AIS UBHA VIKA.— GUJARATI.

Recognized as one of the Greatest-

latest collection of verses HiS

rehpous sense which gave birth to what was best in ^ the deep

philosophy of the past, yet constrained by some n 6 Indlan llfe and
him self to break away from the past and tn f! • J 3 wer stron ge r than

Under the title of Anubhavikl which may not T the future '

Perceptions” or “Experiences ” his „„ y , not una Ptly be rendered
through which the noblest minds’ in IndST* dlSC ° Se & pbaSe ° f feeHn S
‘Mr. Malabari knows that s 1 l ^ejiow passing. . .

Christianity, or Mahommadanism and h ‘ ^ r ° Ider than Hindu ism,

a profounder view of the ways of God to man bTi, * embodies
whatever is to reach the Indian hm-n- " ^ Ut a * so rea ^ lz es that

"Af« doing an , ha. th « y “ ‘he^ ££ STmT*.” “ *““•

one of hi. vane,, wbich ni ;., t[ hm b * mX ?* "T”" p,, “* ” ™»
Like a horrible shadow, thy action will f n 4 , by a Hmdu philosopher ;
condensing .he whole Baddhi.i doctrine '7 mother,

solutions which Mr. Mtdabati haJ „fc SZT°7 “»'• The

are Duty and Work. Throughout his rvw. - th problems of existence

world. In it also are heard ** kndl of a ^parting

Times, ‘ Indian Affairs,’ London 1 8^4 ofthia Ss.’~r/e

THE INDIAN PROBLEM.

‘ Mr. Malabari has closed hi<? nwe a - • .
of what he regards as the true principles off !r n ^ Iand b y a declaration
able document intended for Enriisl^state Indmn pr0§Tess - • • A remark-
edition to a certain tone ^ ^ • • *

of a gentle and conciliatory good sense whirf ^ f r0ugh h ’ !t is
examples of the Annual Epistles of the So tie vofT / ““ ° f the best
the actual facts of the India of our da, 7 Fnends - shows that
political projects of the small body of IndD Str0n £ alike for the

of public life, and for the disdainful attkuT TT* ° n Western ideals
men in India adopt towards that small a W j ICb some °f our country-
can help to bridge over tbe guff of ^ ' ‘ If Mr ' Malabari

which separates these classes, he will hayeTonf “ d misunderstand Mg
The Times, ‘ Indian Affairs,’ London, S94. “ lmp ° rtant se ™^’~

Mr. Malabar? s Literary Works .

*5

£ It is refreshing to come across a document which grasps the main
situation and proceeds to point out the remedy in a statesmanlike spirit.

. . If native publicists had a tithe of the statesmanship, sobriety, and
foresight shown here, the task of governing the country would be much
easier than it is now/ — The Times of India^ 1894.

‘ The Indian eye that saw such fascinating and good-humoured things
about English life turned itself to look within India, and the result is
a concise and yet graphic summary of the forces that are at work in India
of to-day. A sympathetic observer, mild but keen-sighted, with firm
opinions expressed in inoffensive language/ — Indu Prakash , 1894.

‘ A valuable Note on the British Administration of India ; a presentation,
such as would become a true statesman, of the larger questions affecting
our country. . . Mr. Malabari holds the first rank among our select

native writers of English. . . In short, this Minute of Mr. Malabari’ s

is such as to do credit to any distinguished statesman/ — The Rast Goftar ,
Bombay, 1894.

c A comprehensive survey of the various forces at work in India. Mr.
Malabari writes with a candour and vigour of judgement about which
there can be no mistake. His description of the situation is as felicitous
as it is generally accurate/ — The Panjab Patriot , Lahore, 1894.

‘If all our Indian reformers were actuated by the principles to which
expression is given in Mr. Malabari’s Memorandum, it would be a
pleasure to the Anglo-Indian to encourage the movement of which he
now usually entertains suspicions/ — The Madras Times , Madras, 1894-

1 It is animated throughout with all the spirit and earnestness of a patriot
and the moderation, skill, and sagacity of a statesman/ — The Gujarat
Mitra and Gujarat Darpan , Surat, 1894.

c We are by no means sorry that Mr. Malabari’s Memorandum has been
hailed with pleasure by Anglo-Indians. The Memorandum can be read
with greater profit by Anglo-Indians than Indians ; and we hope the
respect and regard the former have for Mr. Malabari will induce them
to treat the political reformers of this country, the educated natives, in
a far kindlier spirit. . . These are noble truths clothed in unmistakable,
language. Are they to bear no fruit?’ — The Madras Standard , Madras,
1894.

‘ It is but natural that this wide comprehension of facts, his keen insight
into character and events, his close study of the community about which
he writes, and above all, the critical and impartial spirit of his remarks,
should make his Memorandum acceptable, not only in the highest circles
in England, but also to the Anglo-Indian community and Press in India,
which do not seem to have been much respected in it. In this memorable
document, Mr. Malabari approaches some of the most momentous questions

i6

Mr. Malabari’s Literary Works.

in a masterly fashion ; and, though the conclusions he arrives at are not

new they are certainly well argued and clearly demonstrated.’- The
J^laJiTatta, Poona, 1894*

‘ It is most gratifying to see that, true to his convictions and to the vow

the benS^-T 6 ” ost / aithfU %> Mr ‘ Malabari has given us

the benefit of his keen insight, shrewd observation, faithful sympathy,

nd his very elegant and sober style, by writing a Memorandum giving

a succinct account of the political and economical situation of our country

o- ay; and has also stated what, in his opinion, the duty of English

statesmen at present is. The Memorandum is evidently written to

enlighten the upper ten of the English politicians of the day on the

S V tates U lnn ng l India \ q ^° n t ; • We ^tily wish this most
statesmanlike document of Mr. Malabari will be translated into every

vernacular language and read by all the Indians i—Dnyan Prakash, 1894.

‘Owing to these reasons, also to abstaining from party squabbles, and
is forbearance and impartiality, Mr. Malabari commands an amount of

attention, which it is the good fortune of no other Indian publicist to
obtain. — Bombay Gazette, 1894.

‘ He has the ear of the philanthropic section of the British public. He
would earn the heart-felt gratitude of the teeming and voiceless millions

of tins country if he could obtain financial justice for India from England*
— Advocate, 1894. 6

i' ■ 1 '

1 All that he writes commands attention. . . There are Englishmen who

know India only through Mr. Malabari and his Spectator. Let none

complain, however. It is something to have one of us who can interpret

the national will to persons in authority and can manage to be listened

to Mr. Malabari exercises a charm by his very name.’— The Indian
Nation, 1895*